The discovery of new regimes of interaction between laser and matter requires to produce laser pulses presenting higher luminous flux density. The only solutions that allow us to reach important power (about ten peta-watts) imply the correction of non-linear effects before compressing the laser pulse so that we do not transfer the phase modulation to the amplitude modulation. The aim of this work is the correction of the spectralphase through the modulation of the temporal phase. The first chapter is dedicated to the review of the physical phenomena involved in the interaction of ultra-intense laser pulse with matter. The peta-watt laser operating on the LIL (integrated laser line), the prototype line of the Megajoule Laser, is described in the second chapter. The third chapter presents the method used and optimized for getting an absolute measurement of the spectralphase in our experimental configuration. The fourth chapter details the analogy existing between the spatial domain and the temporal domain particularly between diffraction and dispersion. This analogy has allowed us to benefit from the knowledge cumulated in the spatial domain, particularly the treatment of the aberrations and their impact on the focal spot and to use it in the temporal domain. The principle of the phase correction is exposed in the fifth chapter. We have formalized the correspondence of the phase modulation between temporal domain and the spectral domain for strongly stretched pulses. In this way a modulation of the temporal phase is turned into a modulation of the spectralphase. All the measurements concerning phases and modulation spectralphase correction are presented in the sixth chapter. In the last chapter we propose an extension of the temporal phase correction by correcting non-linear effects directly in the temporal phase. This correction will improve the performances of the peta-watt laser. Numerical simulations show that the temporal phase correction can lead to a

The design and operation of a high-resolution spectralphase shaper with a footprint of only 7×10 cm2 is presented. The liquid-crystal modulator has 4096 elements. More than 600 independent degrees of freedom can be positioned with a relative accuracy of 1 pixel. The spectral shaping of pulses fro

Ionization-induced blueshifting is investigated through INF&RNO simulations and experimental studies at the Berkeley Laboratory Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center. The effects of spectralphase and optical compression are explored. An in-situ method for verifying the spectralphase of an intense laser pulse at focus is presented, based on the effects of optical compression on the morphology of the blueshifted laser spectra.

A new method of phasespectral analysis of EEG is proposed for the comparative analysis of phase spectra between normal EEG and epileptic EEG signals based on the wavelet decomposition technique. By using multiscale wavelet decomposition, the original EEGs are mapped to an orthogonal wavelet space, such that the variations of phase can be observed at multiscale. It is found that the phase (and phase difference) spectra of normal EEGs are distinct from that of epileptic EEGs. That is the variations of phase (and phase difference) of normal EEGs have a distinct periodic pattern with the electrical activity proceeds in the brain, but do not the epileptic EEGs. For epileptic EEGs, only at those transient points, the phase variations are obvious. In order to verify these results with the observational data, the phase variations of EEGs in principal component space are observed and found that, the features of phase spectra is in correspondence with that the wavelet space. These results make it possible to view the behavior of EEG rhythms as a dynamic spectrum.

Massive stars live fast and die young. They shine furiously for a few million years, during which time they synthesize most of the heavy elements in the universe in their cores. They end by blowing themselves up in a powerful explosion known as a supernova. During this process, the core collapses to a neutron star or a black hole, while the outer layers are expelled with velocities of thousands of kilometers per second. The resulting fireworks often outshine the entire host galaxy for many weeks. The explosion energy is eventually radiated away, but powering of the newborn nebula continues by radioactive isotopes synthesized in the explosion. The ejecta are now quite transparent, and we can see the material produced in the deep interiors of the star. To interpret the observations, detailed spectral modeling is needed. This thesis aims to develop and apply state-of-the-art computational tools for interpreting and modeling supernova observations in the nebular phase. This requires calculation of the physical co...

We propose a technique to control the spectral and temporal coherence properties of pulsed beams of light via time-dependent manipulation of the spectralphase. Modulation schemes for the generation of partially coherent pulse trains from a train of fully coherent pulses are presented. The feasibility of experimental realization of the method is confirmed by numerical estimates.

The cross-spectralphases between velocity components at two heights are analyzed from observations at the Hovsore test site and from the field experiments under the Cooperative Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Study in 1999. These phases represent the degree to which turbulence sensed at one height...... leads (or lags) in time the turbulence sensed at the other height. The phase angle of the cross-wind component is observed to be significantly greater than the phase for the along-wind component, which in turn is greater than the phase for the vertical component. The cross-wind and along-wind phases...... increase with stream-wise wavenumber and vertical separation distance, but there is no significant change in the phase angle of vertical velocity, which remains close to zero. The phases are also calculated using a rapid distortion theory model and large-eddy simulation. The results from the models show...

In this paper we apply the method of discrete simulation of power law noise, developed in [1],[3],[4], to the problem of simulating phase noise for a combination of power law noises. We derive analytic expressions for the probability of observing a value of phase noise L(f) or of any of the onesided spectral densities S(f); Sy(f), or Sx(f), for arbitrary superpositions of power law noise.

A slab schlieren beam system is shown to give rise to signals which have a quadrature phase relationship to near field microphone signals when vortex structures are present in the flow. The effect is confirmed by signal recovery observations for the transient step induced by a shock tube behind the nozzle settling chamber. Close to the nozzle, the phase spectra noted for a natural unexcited jet show the presence of vortex-like structures in the flow, while further away from the nozzle the phase spectra show phase delays which increase at low Strouhal number. Phasespectral observations at a greater distance from the nozzle show that the constraint of a protruding centerbody, shock tube, or spark excitation gives rise to sets of discrete components in the flow which appear to preserve their vortex ring-like character.

X-ray phase-contrast techniques offer significantly improved soft-tissue contrast compared to absorption-based measurements commonly used in clinical radiology. Grating-based phase contrast methods have proven to be fully compatible to standard laboratory X-ray sources and are currently being used in preclinical research. However, the imaging quality in this method is strongly energy-dependent, which may result in poor signal to noise ratios when using beams with broad energy spectra. One can overcome this disadvantage using energy sensitive detectors like the Medipix3, only taking into account the energies where the SNR is at a maximum. Thereby, an improvement to image quality and a reduction in radiation dose may be reached. This presentation will give an overview over the new Medipix3-based LAMBDA detector, which is currently being developed at DESY, used in grating-based spectralphase-contrast tomography.

We report on ASCA, RXTE, and archival observations of the high mass X-ray binary pulsar 4U1907+09. Spectral measurements of the absorption and flux were made at all phases of the X-ray pulsar orbit, including the first spectral measurements of an extended period of low flux during two of the ASCA observations. We find that a simple spherical wind model can fit the time averaged light curve as measured by the RXTE ASM, but does not fit the observed changes in the absorption column or account for the existence of the phase-locked secondary flare. An additional model component consisting of a trailing stream can account for the variations in column depth. However, these models favor a high inclination angle for the system, suggesting a companion mass more consistent with an identification as a Be-star. In this case an equatorially enhanced wind and inclined neutron star orbit may be a more appropriate interpretation of the data.

We present a novel extraction algorithm for spectralphase interferometry for direct field reconstruction (SPIDER) for the so-called X-SPIDER configuration. Our approach largely extends the measurable time windows of pulses without requiring any modification to the experimental X-SPIDER set-up.

We propose a theoretical framework within which information on the vocabulary of a given corpus can be inferred on the basis of statistical information gathered on that corpus. Inferences can be made on the categories of the words in the vocabulary, and on their syntactical properties within particular languages. Based on the same statistical data, it is possible to build matrices of syntagmatic similarity (bigram transition matrices) or paradigmatic similarity (probability for any pair of words to share common contexts). When clustered with respect to their syntagmatic similarity, words tend to group into sublanguage vocabularies, and when clustered with respect to their paradigmatic similarity, into syntactic or semantic classes. Experiments have explored the first of these two possibilities. Their results are interpreted in the frame of a Markov chain modelling of the corpus' generative processe(s): we show that the results of a spectral analysis of the transition matrix can be interpreted as probability d...

Many focal-reducer spectrographs, currently available at state-of-the-art telescopes facilities, would benefit from a simple refurbishing that could increase both the resolution and spectral range in order to cope with the progressively challenging scientific requirements, but, in order to make this update appealing, it should minimize the changes in the existing structure of the instrument. In the past, many authors proposed solutions based on stacking subsequently layers of dispersive elements and recording multiple spectra in one shot (multiplexing). Although this idea is promising, it brings several drawbacks and complexities that prevent the straightforward integration of such a device in a spectrograph. Fortunately, nowadays, the situation has changed dramatically, thanks to the successful experience achieved through photopolymeric holographic films, used to fabricate common volume-phase holographic gratings (VPHGs). Thanks to the various advantages made available by these materials in this context, we propose an innovative solution to design a stacked multiplexed VPHG that is able to secure efficiently different spectra in a single shot. This allows us to increase resolution and spectral range enabling astronomers to greatly economize their awarded time at the telescope. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability of our solution, both in terms of expected performance and feasibility, supposing the upgrade of the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS).

Global, symmetry-breaking phase transitions in the early universe can generate scaling seed networks which lead to metric perturbations. The acoustic waves in the photon-baryon plasma sourced by these metric perturbations, when Silk damped, generate spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this work, the chemical potential distortion (μ ) due to scaling seed networks is computed and the accompanying Compton y -type distortion is estimated. The specific model of choice is the O (N ) nonlinear σ -model for N ≫1 , but the results remain the same order of magnitude for other scaling seeds. If CMB anisotropy constraints to the O (N ) model are saturated, the resulting chemical potential distortion μ ≲2 ×1 0-9 .

Global, symmetry-breaking phase transitions in the early universe can generate scaling seed networks which lead to metric perturbations. The acoustic waves in the photon-baryon plasma sourced by these metric perturbations, when Silk damped, generate spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this work, the chemical potential distortion ($\\mu$) due to scaling seed networks is computed and the accompanying Compton $y$-type distortion is estimated. The specific model of choice is the $O(N)$ nonlinear $\\sigma$-model for $N\\gg 1$, but the results remain the same order of magnitude for other scaling seeds. If CMB anisotropy constraints to the $O(N)$ model are saturated, the resulting chemical potential distortion $\\mu \\lesssim 2\\times 10^{-9}$.

We show both numerically and experimentally that a phase modulator, acting as a time lens in the Fourier-lens configuration, can induce spectral broadening, narrowing, or shifts, depending on the phase of the modulator cycle. These spectral effects depend on the maximum phase shift that can be imposed by the modulator. In our numerical simulations, pulse spectrum could be compressed by a factor of 8 for a 30 rad phase shift. Experimentally, spectral shifts over a 1.35 nm range and spectral narrowing and broadening by a factor of 2 were demonstrated using a lithium niobate phase modulator with a maximum phase shift of 16 rad at a 10 GHz modulation frequency. All spectral changes were accomplished without employing optical nonlinear effects such as self- or cross-phase modulation.

A new method, phase difference corrections method is developed to correct the frequency and phase of spectrum peak. The continuous time-domain signal is separated into two segments and fast Fourier translation (FFT) is carried out for them, respectively. The frequency and phase are corrected using the phase difference of corresponding discrete spectral lines. Furthermore, the amplitude can also be rectified using the formula of window function spectrum. This method, with good adaptability, high speed and accuracy, is theoretically simple. It can resolve the frequency by means of phase difference directly without the formula of window function. Simulation shows that the single-component frequency, phase and amplitude of theoretical signal can be corrected satisfactorily, with frequency error less than 0.0002 frequency resolution, phase 0.1° and amplitude 0.0002. If the signal involves noise, the mean corrected errors are less than 0.001 frequency resolution, 1° for phase, and 0.01 for amplitude, respectively, and the maximum corrected errors of one segment are less than 0.01 frequency resolution, 1° and 0.03, respectively.

We report a quantitative phase microscope based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography and line-field illumination. The line illumination allows self phase-referencing method to reject common-mode phase noise. The quantitative phase microscope also features a separate reference arm, permitting the use of high numerical aperture (NA > 1) microscope objectives for high resolution phase measurement at multiple points along the line of illumination. We demonstrate that the path-length sensitivity of the instrument can be as good as 41 pm/Hz, which makes it suitable for nanometer scale study of cell motility. We present the detection of natural motions of cell surface and two-dimensional surface profiling of a HeLa cell. PMID:19550464

. The phase angle of the cross-wind component is observed to be significantly greater than the phase for the along-wind component, which in turn is greater than the phase for the vertical component. The cross-wind and along-wind phases increase with stream-wise wavenumber and vertical separation distance......, but there is no significant change in the phase angle of vertical velocity. The phase angles for all atmospheric stabilities show similar order in phasing. The phase angles from the Høvsøre observations under neutral condition are compared with a rapid distortion theory model which show similar order in phase shift....

Characteristic scattering band in the spectral region of 280-380 rim with the maximum of 300-3 10 nm is observed in the spectra of diffuse scattering for rutile, contrary to anatase sample. Spectral parameters of this band depend on the treatment temperature. Doping of Ti02 samples with Cu, Fe, Co, Cr atoms does not affect the spectral position of the band wing in their diffuse scattering. Luminescence spectra of rutile have only short-wavelength components. Anatase has both fluorescence and phosphorescence at T=4.2 K. At room temperature there is no luminescence detected. Cation-doped anatase does not luminescence at all studied temperatures. Their absorption spectra have a new band in the region of 325-405 nm, which spectral parameters depend on the type ofdoping cation.

The prospect for generating supercontinuum pulses on a silicon chip is studied. Using ~4ps optical pulses with 2.2GW/cm2 peak power, a 2 fold spectral broadening is obtained. Theoretical calculations, that include the effect of two-photon-absorption, indicate up to 5 times spectral broadening is achievable at 10x higher peak powers. Representing a nonlinear loss mechanism at high intensities, TPA limits the maximum optical bandwidth that can be generated.

The prospect for generating supercontinuum pulses on a silicon chip is studied. Using ~4ps optical pulses with 2.2GW/cm(2) peak power, a 2 fold spectral broadening is obtained. Theoretical calculations, that include the effect of two-photon-absorption, indicate up to 5 times spectral broadening is achievable at 10x higher peak powers. Representing a nonlinear loss mechanism at high intensities, TPA limits the maximum optical bandwidth that can be generated.

In the framework of the severe accidents R and D studies led by CEA, the better knowledge of the corium behaviour, corium coming from the melting of a nuclear reactor, are fundamental stakes in order to master this kind of accident. Among the available physical properties of the corium, the nature of the final crystalline compounds which have been made during the, cooling gives information about its solidification and its stabilisation. X-Rays Diffraction is the reference method used in order to characterize the corium coming from the different facilities of the European platform PLINIUS of CEA-Cadarache. This work presents the scientific approach that has been followed in order to obtain information both qualitative and quantitative on corium, using X-Rays Diffraction. For instance, a specific method for identifying U{sub 1-x}Zr{sub x}O{sub 2} solid solutions has been developed, and the validity of quantitative analysis of corium crystalline phases using the Rietveld method (with an internal standard), has been tested. This last method has also permitted semi-quantitative measurements of amorphous phases within corium. For these studies, analysis of prototypical corium has been conducted on samples coming from the experiences led on the different facilities of the PLINIUS platform. These analysis allowed for the first time to obtain quantitative data of the corium crystalline phases in order to validate thermodynamic databases and has been used to estimate the thereto-physical properties of the corium. New information on crystalline phases of corium has also been found, especially for the UO{sub 2}-ZrO{sub 2} pseudo binary system. (author)

In this work, we address the phase ambiguity in white light spectral interferometry. This ambiguity prevents one from obtaining the refractive index over a broad spectral range with high accuracy. We first determine the error when the refractive index is fitted to a linear combination of power functions. We demonstrate that the error is proportional to wavelength and independent of sample thickness. We show how to reduce the error over the entire spectral band by measuring the spectralphase at the output of the interferometer for some suitable wavelengths as a function of sample orientation.

The dynamics of contact processes on networks is often determined by the spectral radius of the networks adjacency matrices. A decrease of the spectral radius can prevent the outbreak of an epidemic, or impact the synchronization among systems of coupled oscillators. The spectral radius is thus tightly linked to network dynamics and function. As such, finding the minimal change in network structure necessary to reach the intended spectral radius is important theoretically and practically. Given contemporary big data resources such as large scale communication or social networks, this problem should be solved with a low runtime complexity. We introduce a novel method for the minimal decrease in weights of edges required to reach a given spectral radius. The problem is formulated as a convex optimization problem, where a global optimum is guaranteed. The method can be easily adjusted to an efficient discrete removal of edges. We introduce a variant of the method which finds optimal decrease with a focus on weights of vertices. The proposed algorithm is exceptionally scalable, solving the problem for real networks of tens of millions of edges in a short time.

Mémoire d'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches; My research works focus on audio and music signal processing. They aim to extract from the signal a representation which reveals its temporal and spectral structures. Various musical applications have been addressed, ranging from automatic transcription of music to source separation and audio coding. An important part of this research has been carried out within the framework of the French ANR DESAM (Decompositions into sound elements and music...

A novel approach is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for optical steganography transmission in WDM networks using temporal phase coded optical signals with spectral notch filtering. A temporal phase coded stealth channel is temporally and spectrally overlaid onto a public WDM channel. Direct detection of the public channel is achieved in the presence of the stealth channel. The interference from the public channel is suppressed by spectral notching before the detection of the optical stealth signal. The approach is shown to have good compatibility and robustness to the existing WDM network for optical steganography transmission.

A novel variant of spectralphase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) is introduced and experimentally demonstrated. Other than most previously demonstrated variants of SPIDER, our method is based on a third-order nonlinear optical effect, namely self-diffraction, rather than the second-order effect of sum-frequency generation. On one hand, self-diffraction (SD) substantially simplifies phase-matching capabilities for multi-octave spectra that cannot be hosted by second-order processes, given manufacturing limitations of crystal lengths in the few-micrometer range. On the other hand, however, SD SPIDER imposes an additional constraint as it effectively measures the spectralphase of a self-convolved spectrum rather than immediately measuring the fundamental phase. Reconstruction of the latter from the measured phase and the spectral amplitude of the fundamental turns out to be an ill-posed problem, which we address by a regularization approach. We discuss the numerical implementat...

High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG), because it produces longitudinally coherent pulses derived from a coherent seed, presents remarkable possibilities for manipulating FEL pulses. If spectralphase modulation imposed on the seed modulates the spectralphase of the HGHG in a deterministic fashion, then chirped pulse amplification, pulse shaping, and coherent control experiments at short wavelengths become possible. In addition, the details of the transfer function will likely depend on electron beam and radiator dynamics and so prove to be a useful tool for studying these. Using the DUVFEL at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, we present spectralphase analyses of both coherent HGHG and incoherent SASE ultraviolet FEL radiation, applying Spectral Interferometry for Direct Electric Field Reconstruction (SPIDER), and assess the potential for employing compression and shaping techniques.

Aim: We present new extraction and identification techniques for supernova (SN) spectra developed within the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) collaboration. Method: The new spectral extraction method takes full advantage of photometric information from the Canada-France-Hawai telescope (CFHT) discovery and reference images by tracing the exact position of the supernova and the host signals on the spectrogram. When present, the host spatial profile is measured on deep multi-band reference images and is used to model the host contribution to the full (supernova + host) signal. The supernova is modelled as a Gaussian function of width equal to the seeing. A chi-square minimisation provides the flux of each component in each pixel of the 2D spectrogram. For a host-supernova separation greater than spectral template in contrast to more standard analyses. This new procedure permits a clean extraction of the supernova separately from the ho...

We have studied the phase locking and spectral linewidth of an ∼ 2.7 THz quantum cascade laser by mixing its two lateral lasing modes. The beat signal at about 8 GHz is compared with a microwave reference by applying conventional phase lock loop circuitry with feedback to the laser bias current. Pha

We have realized a phase noise standard of a signal with a -100 dBc/Hz flat phase noise at 10 MHz for Fourier frequencies of 1 Hz to 100 kHz, which ensures traceability to the International System of Units (SI). The flat phase noise signal is produced using a carrier combined with white noise. To ensure traceability, both the flat phase noise signal power and the power spectral density of white noise are determined with a calibrated power meter and the noise standard, respectively. The flatness of the phase noise standard is within ±0.7 dB.

We investigated experimentally and numerically the spectral control of modulation instability (MI) dynamics via the initial phase relation of two weak seed fields. Specifically, we show how second-order MI dynamics exhibit phase-dependent anti-correlated growth rates of adjacent spectral sidebands. This effect enables a novel method to control MI-based frequency conversion: in contrast to first-order MI dynamics, which exhibit a uniform phase dependence of the growth rates, second-order MI dynamics allow to redistribute the spectral energy, leading to an asymmetric spectrum. Therefore, the presented findings should be very attractive to different applications, such as phase-sensitive amplification or supercontinuum generation initiated by MI.

We investigated experimentally and numerically the spectral control of modulation instability (MI) dynamics via the initial phase relation of two weak seed fields. Specifically, we show how second-order modulation instability dynamics exhibit phase-dependent anti-correlated growth rates of adjacent spectral sidebands. This effect enables a novel method to control MI-based frequency conversion: in contrast to first-order MI dynamics, which exhibit a uniform phase dependence of the growth rates, second-order MI dynamics allow to redistribute the spectral energy, leading to an asymmetric spectrum. Therefore, the presented findings should be very attractive to different applications, such as phase-sensitive amplification or supercontinuum generation initiated by MI.

into 2 wave systems with a dominating local sea. For this type of sea states, a directional tuning in the directional phase spectra could be expected. A new spectra width parameter which is equally applicable to spectra of narrow band, wide band...

A novel method to measure the absolute phase shift on reflection of thin film is presented utilizing a white-light interferometer in spectral domain.By applying Fourier transformation to the recorded spectral interference signal,we retrieve the spectralphase function ф,which is induced by three parts:the path length difference in air L,the effective thickness of slightly dispersive cube beam splitter Teff and the nonlinear phase function due to multi-reflection of the thin film structure.We utilize the fact that the overall optical path difference(OPD)is linearly dependent on the refractive index of the beam splitter to determine both L and Teff.The spectralphase shift on reflection of thin film structure can be obtained by subtracting these two parts from ф.We show theoretically and experimentally that our now method can provide a sinlple and fast solution in calculating the absolute spectralphase function of optical thin films,while still maintaining high accuracy.

Phosphogypsum, which contains more than 90% of the calcium sulfate dehydrate (CaSO4 · 2H2O), is a kind of important renewable gypsum resources. Unlike the natural gypsum, however, phosphorus, fluorine, organic matter and other harmful impurities in phosphogypsum limit its practical use. To ascertain the existence form, content and phase distribution of trace fluoride in phosphogypsum has important theoretical values in removing trace fluoride effectively. In this present paper, the main existence form and phase distribution of trace fluoride in phosphogypsum was investigated by the combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Electron microprobe analysis (EMPA). The results show that trace fluoride phase mainly includes NaF, KF, CaF2, K2SiF6, Na2SiF6, Na3AlF6, K3AlF6, AlF3 · 3H2O, AlF2.3(OH)0.7 · H2O, Ca5(PO4)3F, Ca10(PO4)6F2. Among them, 4.83% of fluorine exists in the form of fluoride (NaF, KF, CaF2); Accordingly, 8.43% in the form of fluoride phosphate (Ca5(PO4)3F, Ca10(PO4)6F2); 12.21% in the form of fluorine aluminate (Na3AlF6, K3AlF6); 41.52% in the form of fluorosilicate (K2SiF6, Na2SiF6); 33.02% in the form of aluminum fluoride with crystal water (AlF3 · 3H2O, AlF2.3(OH)0.7 · H2O). In the analysis of phase constitution for trace elements in solid samples, the method of combining XPS and EMPA has more advantages. This study also provides theoretical basis for the removal of trace fluorine impurity and the effective recovery of fluorine resources.

A new hologram type in spectral hole-burning systems is presented. During exposure, the frequency of narrow-band laser light is swept over a spectral range that corresponds to a few homogeneous linewidths of the spectrally selective recording material. Simultaneously the phase of the hologram is adjusted as a function of frequency-the phase sweep function. Because of the phase-reconstructing properties of holography, this recording technique programs the sample as a spectral amplitude and phase filter. We call this hologram type frequency and phase swept (FPS) holograms. Their properties and applications are summarized, and a straightforward theory is presented that describes all the diffraction phenomena observed to date. Thin FPS holograms show strongly asymmetric diffraction into conjugated diffraction orders, which is an unusual behavior for thin transmission holograms. Investigations demonstrate the advantages of FPS holograms with respect to conventional cw recording techniques in freq ncymultiplexed data storage. By choosing appropriate phase sweep functions, various features of holographic data storage can be optimized. Examples for cross-talk reduction, highest diffraction efficiency, and maximal readout stability are demonstrated. The properties of these FPS hologram types are deduced from theoretical considerations and confirmed by experiments.

Complex Spectral Optical Tomography (CSOCT) in comparison to ordinary SOCT produces images free of parasitic mirror terms which results in double extension of the measurement range. This technique, however, requires the exact knowledge about the values of the introduced phase shifts in consecutive measurements. Involuntary object movements, which shift the phase from one measurement to another are always present in in vivo experiments. This introduces residual ghosts in cross-sectional images. Here we present a new method of data analysis, which allows determining the real phase shifts introduced during the measurement, and which helps to reduce the ghost effect. Two-dimensional cross-sectional in vivo images of human eye and skin obtained with the aid of this improved complex spectral OCT technique are shown. The method is free of polychromatic phase error originating from the wavelength dependence of the phase shift introduced by the reference mirror translation.

The aim of this work is to obtain a good understanding of the phase diagram of titanium within density functional theory. This diagram is composed of the alpha phase, the high pressure omega phase and the high temperature beta phase. This requires the differences in total energy to be predicted with a great precision, because these differences are around 50 meV. I find the omega phase to be the most stable one by ab initio calculation at zero temperature and pressure, in contradiction to the experimental results. I find this inversion of the stability also appears in titanium dioxide and zirconium. I have analyzed all the approximations brought into play in the ab initio approach. I have estimated the zero point energy and studied the impact of including the semi-core states as well as the effect of the exchange-correlation functionals. The conclusion is that the usual approximations for the exchange-correlation generate the biggest part of the error. A possible correction is to take into account the electronic self-interaction. I have apply this correction to the semi-core states and find a systematic improvement of the cell parameters, but no improvement on the phase stability. So I can conclude that a better description of the exchange interaction on the localized 3d states is needed. Although the standard functionals of exchange-correlation are not accurate enough to predict the phase diagrams of titanium, they perform well in describing physical properties less demanding in terms of precision, like elastic constants. However, I find important that the predicted equilibrium volume must be precise, as these properties are found strongly dependent on the volume. (author)

Context. The circumstellar disks ejected by many rapidly rotating B stars (so-called Be stars) offer the rare opportunity of studying the structure and dynamics of gaseous disks at high spectral as well as angular resolution. Aims. This paper explores a newly identified effect in spectro-interferometric phase that can be used for probing the inner regions of gaseous edge-on disks on a scale of a few stellar radii. Methods. The origin of this effect (dubbed central quasi-emission phase signature, CQE-PS) lies in the velocity-dependent line absorption of photospheric radiation by the circumstellar disk. At high spectral and marginal interferometric resolution, photocenter displacements between star and isovelocity regions in the Keplerian disk reveal themselves through small interferometric phase shifts. To investigate the diagnostic potential of this effect, a series of models are presented, based on detailed radiative transfer calculations in a viscous decretion disk. Results. Amplitude and detailed shape of ...

We present a setup for complete characterization of femtosecond pulses generated by seeded free-electron lasers (FEL's) in the extreme-ultraviolet spectral region. Two delayed and spectrally shifted replicas are produced and used for spectralphase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER). We show that it can be achieved by a simple arrangement of the seed laser. Temporal shape and phase obtained in FEL simulations are well retrieved by the SPIDER reconstruction, allowing to foresee the implementation of this diagnostic on existing and future sources. This will be a significant step towards an experimental investigation and control of FEL spectralphase.

We report an experimental demonstration of spectral self-imaging on a periodic frequency comb induced by a nonlinear all-optical process, i.e., parabolic cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber. The comb free spectral range is reconfigured by simply tuning the temporal period of the pump parabolic pulse train. In particular, undistorted FSR divisions by factors of 2 and 3 are successfully performed on a 10 GHz frequency comb, realizing new frequency combs with an FSR of 5 and 3.3 GHz, respectively. The pump power requirement associated to the SSI phenomena is also shown to be significantly relaxed by the use of dark parabolic pulses.

We describe our recent proposal that distinct phases of gauge theories with fundamental quarks translate into specific types of low-energy behavior in Dirac spectral density. The resulting scenario is built around new evidence substantiating the existence of a phase characterized by bimodal (anomalous) density, and corresponding to deconfined dynamics with broken valence chiral symmetry. We argue that such anomalous phase occurs quite generically in these theories, including in "real world" QCD above the crossover temperature, and in zero-temperature systems with many light flavors.

We evaluate the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) determination error when utilizing the Brillouin phase spectrum (BPS) instead of the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) in BOTDA systems. Systems based on the BPS perform the determination of the BFS through a linear fit around the zero de-phase frequency region. An analytical expression of the error obtained in the BFS determination as a function of the different experimental parameters is provided and experimentally validated. The experimental results show a good agreement with the theoretical predictions as a function of the number of sampling points, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Brillouin spectral linewidth. For an equal SNR and linewidth, the phase response only provides a better BFS estimation than the gain response when the fit is performed over a restricted frequency range around the center of the spectral profile. This may reduce the measurement time of specific BOTDA systems requiring a narrow frequency scanning. When the frequency scan covers most of the Brillouin spectral profile, gain and phase responses give very similar estimations of the BFS and the BPS offers no crucial benefit.

A new method based on diffraction spectral analysis is proposed for the quantitative measurement of the phase variation amplitude of an ultrasonic diffraction grating. For a traveling wave, the phase variation amplitude of the grating depends on the intensity of the zeroth- and first-order diffraction waves. By contrast, for a standing wave, this amplitude depends on the intensity of the zeroth-, first-, and second-order diffraction waves. The proposed method is verified experimentally. The measured phase variation amplitude ranges from 0 to 2π, with a relative error of approximately 5%. A nearly linear relation exists between the phase variation amplitude and driving voltage. Our proposed method can also be applied to ordinary sinusoidal phase grating.

In harmonic analysis with fast Fourier transforms, referencing the phase at the centre of the spectral window is a useful means of perceiving a problem and conceiving a solution because, algebraically speaking, the phase can be referenced anywhere. The Cramér-Rao bound is used to demonstrate that the phase reconstruction error is minimum at the centre of the data buffer acquired with a rectangular window. In more general terms, in the presence of a frequency- and amplitude-modulated sinusoidal signal contaminated with noise, it is suggested that the spectral estimation gives the amplitude, frequency and phase of the signal as it passes through the middle of the observation window. It is at the centre of this window that signal reconstruction is most accurate. Furthermore, presenting a phase value referenced to another location often makes the equations relating the phase more complicated to formulate. Different examples of applications are provided along with the reasons why Hydro-Québec has standardised this reference for its turbine-generator monitoring system.

In this Letter, we present a single-step method to simultaneously retrieve x-ray absorption and phase images valid for a broad range of imaging energies and material properties. Our method relies on the availability of spectrally resolved intensity measurements, which is now possible using semiconductor x-ray photon counting detectors. The retrieval method is derived and presented, with results showing good agreement.

We propose a new, simple approach to enhance the spectral compression process arising from nonlinear pulse propagation in an optical fiber. We numerically show that an additional sinusoidal temporal phase modulation of the pulse enables efficient reduction of the intensity level of the side lobes in the spectrum that are produced by the mismatch between the initial linear negative chirp of the pulse and the self-phase modulation-induced nonlinear positive chirp. Remarkable increase of both the extent of spectrum narrowing and the quality of the compressed spectrum is afforded by the proposed approach across a wide range of experimentally accessible parameters.

The spectral properties and phase diagram of the exactly integrable spin-1 quantum chain introduced by Alcaraz and Bariev are presented. The model has a U(1) symmetry and its integrability is associated with an unknown R-matrix whose dependence on the spectral parameters is not of a different form. The associated Bethe ansatz equations that fix the eigenspectra are distinct from those associated with other known integrable spin models. The model has a free parameter t{sub p}. We show that at the special point t{sub p} = 1, the model acquires an extra U(1) symmetry and reduces to the deformed SU(3) Perk-Schultz model at a special value of its anisotropy q = exp (i2{pi}/3) and in the presence of an external magnetic field. Our analysis is carried out either by solving the associated Bethe ansatz equations or by direct diagonalization of the quantum Hamiltonian for small lattice sizes. The phase diagram is calculated by exploring the consequences of conformal invariance on the finite-size corrections of the Hamiltonian eigenspectrum. The model exhibits a critical phase ruled by the c = 1 conformal field theory separated from a massive phase by first-order phase transitions.

This thesis presents measurements of the {tau} vector (V) and axial-vector (A) hadronic spectral functions and phenomenological studies in the framework of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Using the hypothesis of conserved vector currents (CVC), the dominant two- and four-pion vector spectral functions are compared to the corresponding cross sections from e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation. A combined fit of the pion form factor from {tau} decays and e{sup +}e{sup -} data is performed using different parametrizations. The mass and the width of the {rho}{sup {+-}}(770) and the {rho}{sup 0}(770) are separately determined in order to extract possible isospin violating effects. The mass and width differences are measured to be M{sub {rho}{sup {+-}}{sub (770)} - M{sub {rho}{sup 0}}{sub (770)}=(0.0{+-}1.0) MeV/c{sup 2} and {gamma}{sub {rho}{sup {+-}}{sub (770)} - {gamma}{sub {rho}{sup 0}}{sub (770)}=(0.1 {+-} 1.9) MeV/c{sup 2}. Several QCD chiral sum rules involving the difference (V - A) of the spectral functions are compared to their measurements. The Borel-transformed Das-Mathur-Okubo sum rule is used to measure the pion polarizability to be {alpha}{sub E}=(2.68{+-}0.91) x 10{sup -4} fm{sup 3}. The {tau} vector and axial-vector hadronic widths and certain spectral moments are exploited to measure {alpha}{sub s} and non-perturbative contributions at the {tau} mass scale. The best, and experimentally and theoretically most robust, determination of {alpha}{sub s}(M{sub {tau}}) is obtained from the inclusive (V + A) fit that yields {alpha}{sub s}(M{sub {tau}})= 0.348{+-}0.017 giving {alpha}{sub s}(M{sub Z})=0.1211 {+-} 0.0021 after the evolution to the mass of the Z boson. The approach of the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) is tested experimentally by means of an evolution of the {tau} hadronic width to masses smaller that the {tau} mass. Using the difference (V - A) of the spectral functions allows one to directly measure the dominant non-perturbative OPE dimension to be D=6

Optical antennas transform light from freely propagating waves into highly localized excitations that interact strongly with matter. Unlike their radio frequency counterparts, optical antennas are nanoscopic and high frequency, making amplitude and phase measurements challenging and leaving some information hidden. Here we report a novel spectral interferometric microscopy technique to expose the amplitude and phase response of individual optical antennas across an octave of the visible to near-infrared spectrum. Although it is a far-field technique, we show that knowledge of the extinction phase allows quantitative estimation of nanoantenna absorption, which is a near-field quantity. To verify our method we characterize gold ring-disk dimers exhibiting Fano interference. Our results reveal that Fano interference only cancels a bright mode's scattering, leaving residual extinction dominated by absorption. Spectral interference microscopy has the potential for real-time and single-shot phase and amplitude investigations of isolated quantum and classical antennas with applications across the physical and life sciences.

The goal of this Phase II SBIR has been to develop a prototype software package to demonstrate spectrally-aided vehicle tracking. The primary application is to show improved target vehicle tracking performance in complex environments where traditional spatial tracker systems may show reduced performance. Examples include scenarios where the target vehicle is obscured by a large structure for an extended period of time, or where the target is engaging in extreme maneuvers amongst other civilian vehicles. The target information derived from spatial processing is unable to differentiate between the green versus the red vehicle. Spectral signature exploitation enables comparison of new candidate targets with existing track signatures. The ambiguity in this confusing scenario is resolved by folding spectral analysis results into each target nomination and association processes. The work performed over the two-year effort was divided into three general areas: algorithm refinement, software prototype development, and prototype performance demonstration. The tasks performed under this Phase II resulted in the completion of a software tool suitable for evaluation and testing of advanced tracking concepts.

Laboratory investigations have been conducted on the effects of variations in sulfur sample histories on their solid-state transformation rate and the corresponding spectral variation of freshly frozen sulfur. The temporal variations in question may be due to differences in the amount and type of metastable allotropes present in the sulfur after solidification, as well as to the physics of the phase-transformation process itself. The results obtained are pertinent to the physical behavior and spectral variation of such freshly solidified sulfur as may exist on the Jupiter moon Io; this would initially solidify into a glassy solid or monoclinic crystalline lattice, then approach ambient dayside temperatures. Laboratory results imply that the monoclinic or polymeric allotropes can in these circumstances be maintained, and will take years to convert to the stable orthorhombic crystalline form.

Full Text Available Induction motors are important part of safe and efficient running of any industrial plant. These motors are often used in industrial applications thanks to their usability and their robustness. Faults and failures of induction machine can lead to excessive downtimes processes; generate large losses in revenues and long term maintenance. Early detection of motor abnormalities would help avoiding costly breakdowns. In this paper a diagnostic technique of induction motor broken rotor bars is presented. The applied method is the so-called Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA which utilized the results of spectral analysis of the stator current. The broken rotor bars and rings will cause twice slip frequency side bands around the supplying frequency. The fault detection method consists in monitoring of stator phase current spectrum. Twice slip frequency side bands around the main frequency detected by spectral analysis is an indicator of the broken bars. The experimental results show the efficiency of the method.

Metallic glasses have attracted considerable interest in recent years due to their unique combination of superb properties and processability. Predicting bulk metallic glass formers from known parameters remains a challenge and the search for new systems is still performed by trial and error. It has been speculated that some sort of "confusion" during crystallization of the crystalline phases competing with glass formation could play a key role. Here, we propose a heuristic descriptor quantifying confusion and demonstrate its validity by detailed experiments on two well-known glass forming alloy systems. With the insight provided by these results, we develop a robust model for predicting glass formation ability based on the spectral decomposition of geometrical and energetic features of crystalline phases calculated ab-initio in the AFLOW high throughput framework. Our findings indicate that the formation of metallic glass phases could be a much more common phenomenon than currently estimated, with more than ...

We describe a closed-form approach for performing a Kramers-Kronig (KK) transform that can be used to rapidly and reliably retrieve the phase, and thus the resonant imaginary component, from a broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectrum with a nonflat background. In this approach we transform the frequency-domain data to the time domain, perform an operation that ensures a causality criterion is met, then transform back to the frequency domain. The fact that this method handles causality in the time domain allows us to conveniently account for spectrally varying nonresonant background from CARS as a response function with a finite rise time. A phase error accompanies KK transform of data with finite frequency range. In examples shown here, that phase error leads to small (<1%) errors in the retrieved resonant spectra.

The nonlocal correlation mechanism between excitonic pairs is considered for a two dimensional exciton system. On the base of the unitary decomposition of the usual electron operator, we include the electron phase degrees of freedom into the problem of interacting excitons. Applying the path integral formalism, we treat the excitonic insulator state (EI) and the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of preformed excitonic pairs as two independent problems. For the BEC of excitons the phase field variables play a crucial role. We derive the expression of the local EI order parameter by integrating out the phase variables. Then, considering the zero temperature limit, we obtain the excitonic BEC transition probability function, by integrating out the fermions. We calculate the normal excitonic Green functions for the conduction and valence band electrons and we derive the excitonic spectral functions, both analytically and numerically. Different values of the Coulomb interaction parameter are considered.

We propose a prescaled phase-locked loop (PLL) using a simple optoelectronic phase comparator based on phase modulation and spectral filtering. Our phase comparator has a high dynamic range of over 9 dB and a high sensitivity comparable to that using an electrical mixer. A PLL composed of our phase comparator enables to extract a low-noise 10-GHz clock from a 160-Gbit/s optical-time-division multiplexed (OTDM) signal.

Spectral domain phase microscopy (SDPM) is an extension of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) that exploits the extraordinary phase stability of spectrometer-based systems with common-path geometry to resolve sub-wavelength displacements within a sample volume. This technique has been implemented for high resolution axial displacement and velocity measurements in biological samples, but since axial displacement information is acquired serially along the lateral dimension, it has been unable to measure fast temporal dynamics in extended samples. Depth-Encoded SDPM (DESDPM) uses multiple sample arms with unevenly spaced common path reference reflectors to multiplex independent SDPM signals from separate lateral positions on a sample simultaneously using a single interferometer, thereby reducing the time required to detect unique optical events to the integration period of the detector. Here, we introduce DESDPM and demonstrate the ability to acquire useful phase data concurrently at two laterally separated locations in a phantom sample as well as a biological preparation of spontaneously beating chick cardiomyocytes. DESDPM may be a useful tool for imaging fast cellular phenomena such as nervous conduction velocity or contractile motion.

Phased array inspection was conducted on a V-butt welded steel sample with multiple shallow flaws of varying depths. The inspection measurements were processed using Wiener filtering and Autoregressive Spectral Extrapolation (AS) to enhance the signals. Phased array inspections were conducted using multiple phased array probes of varying nominal central frequencies (2.25, 4, 5 and 10 MHz). This paper describes the measured results, which show high accuracy, typically in the range of 0.1-0.2 mm. The results concluded that: 1. There was no statistical difference between the calculated flaw depths from phased array inspections at different flaw tip angles. 2. There was no statistical difference in flaw depths calculated using phased array data collected from either side of the weld. 3. Flaws with depths less than the estimated probe signal shear wavelength could not be sized. 4. Finally, there was no statistical difference in the calculated flaw depths using phased array probes with different sampling frequencies and destructive measurements of the flaws.

We demonstrate a simple, all-optical, fiber-based method for characterizing the spectral amplitude and phase of ultrafast pulses using a differential tomographic measurement realized via four-wave mixing. The technique is applied to subpicosecond pulses in the C-band of the telecommunication spectrum. Characterization of amplified pulses and propagation through dispersive media is demonstrated and compared with autocorrelation measurements and calculated predictions. We show how our approach can be extended to larger bandwidths in similar systems, extending tomographic reconstruction of coherent fields to nearly an octave of bandwidth while maintaining a robust, waveguide-based geometry.

The recent introduction of coherent optical communications has created a compelling need for ultra-fast phase-sensitive measurement techniques operating at milliwatt peak power levels and in time scales ranging from sub-picoseconds to nanoseconds. Previous reports of ultrafast optical signal measurements in integrated platforms[8-10] include time-lens temporal imaging on a silicon chip[8,9] and waveguide-based Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG). Time-lens imaging is phase insensitive while waveguide-based FROG methods require the integration of long tuneable delay lines - still an unsolved challenge. Here, we report a device capable of characterizing both the amplitude and phase of ultrafast optical pulses with the aid of a synchronized incoherently-related clock pulse. It is based on a novel variation of SpectralPhase Interferometry for Direct Electric-Field Reconstruction (SPIDER)that exploits degenerate four-wave-mixing (FWM) in a CMOS compatible chip. We measure pulses with 1THz, and up to 100ps pu...

The optical transition radiation (OTR) is extensively used since many years as a beam visualisation tool on electron accelerators and serves to monitor the beam during its transport adjustment. Its spatial and temporal characteristics make it very attractive as a diagnostic tool and allow measurements of the beam energy and transverse and longitudinal emittances. We present a numerical study of the transition radiation process in the optical region of the radiated spectrum (OTR) and in the higher part (XTR). Spatial and spectral properties are described. They are used to describe experimental observations performed on the ELSA electron-beam facility. An analytical description of the angular distributions of visible radiation emitted by birefringent targets, used as OTR sources, is also proposed. We also analyze interference phenomena between two OTR sources and show the advantage of using this interferometer as a diagnostic tool for tenth MeV electron accelerators. At last, we present an analytical model allowing to design a soft X-ray source to be installed on the ELSA facility and using either a multi-foil stack or a multilayer of two materials of different permittivities. (authors)

This work evaluates spectroscopic and physical properties of CdTe detectors in view of assembling a large number on a new generation spectro-imager for space gamma-ray astronomy. Study, optimization, realization and calibration of modular detection units of the ISGRI camera are described. After a description of the experimental context of the INTEGRAL program and a review of the physical processes involved in gamma-ray photon detectors, we present an analysis of the properties of CdTe detectors attempting to be so exhaustive as possible. We propose the base point of a global model, which relates charge transport properties, spectral response and possible instabilities in the detectors. We propose a new formulation of the Hecht relation that describes charge loss as a function of the detector charge transport properties. We discuss at length the method of charge loss correction and its consequences on the associated integrated electronics definition. Finally, we illustrate our instrument capabilities using as an example the observation of titanium 44 lines in historical supernovae. (author)

spectral microphysics and four bulk schemes within the Hebrew University Cloud Model (HUCM). The HUCM is probably the most detailed bin microphysics model available today. The bulk schemes used in the study are a simple warm-phase Kessler-type scheme, the one-moment mixed-phase schemes by Lin et al. (1983) and Rutledge and Hobbs (1984) and a new double-moment mixed-phase scheme based on the parameterization by Seifert and Beheng (2001) including the number concentration of cloud droplets and a double-moment ice scheme. Using two different test cases for maritime and continental conditions this comparison shows whether the bulk-microphysical schemes come to an agreement with the spectral approach or not.

The automatic calibration in Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) systems allows for high resolution imaging with precise depth ranging functionality in many complex imaging scenarios, such as microsurgery. However, the accuracy and speed of the existing automatic schemes are limited due to the functional approximations and iterative operations used in their procedures. In this paper, we present a new real-time automatic calibration scheme for swept source-based optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) systems. The proposed automatic calibration can be performed during scanning operation and does not require an auxiliary interferometer for calibration signal generation and an additional channel for its acquisition. The proposed method makes use of the spectral component corresponding to the sample surface reflection as the calibration signal. The spectralphase function representing the non-linear sweeping characteristic of the frequency-swept laser source is determined from the calibration signal. The phase linearization with improved accuracy is achieved by normalization and rescaling of the obtained phase function. The fractional-time indices corresponding to the equidistantly spaced phase intervals are estimated directly from the resampling function and are used to resample the OCT signals. The proposed approach allows for precise calibration irrespective of the path length variation induced by the non-planar topography of the sample or galvo scanning. The conceived idea was illustrated using an in-house-developed SS-OCT system by considering the specular reflection from a mirror and other test samples. It was shown that the proposed method provides high-performance calibration in terms of axial resolution and sensitivity without increasing computational and hardware complexity.

The N1-P2 is an obligatory cortical response that can reflect the representation of spectral and temporal characteristics of an auditory stimulus. Traditionally,mean amplitudes and latencies of the prominent peaks in the averaged response are compared across experimental conditions. Analyses of the peaks in the averaged response only reflect a subset of the data contained within the electroencephalogram(EEG) signal. We used single-trial analyses techniques to identify the contribution of brain noise,neural synchrony, and spectral power to the generation of P2 amplitude and how these variables may change across age group. This information is important for appropriate interpretation of event-related potentials (ERPs) results and in understanding of age-related neural pathologies. EEG was measured from 25 younger and 25 older normal hearing adults. Age-related and individual differences in P2 response amplitudes, and variability in brain noise, phase locking value (PLV), and spectral power (4-8 Hz) were assessed from electrode FCz. Model testing and linear regression were used to determine the extent to which brain noise, PLV, and spectral power uniquely predicted P2 amplitudes and varied by age group. Younger adults had significantly larger P2 amplitudes, PLV, and power compared to older adults. Brain noise did not differ between age groups. The results of regression testing revealed that brain noise and PLV, but not spectral power were unique predictors of P2 amplitudes. Model fit was significantly better in younger than in older adults. ERP analyses are intended to provide a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to individual and group differences in behavior. The current results support that age-related declines in neural synchrony contribute to smaller P2 amplitudes in older normal hearing adults. Based on our results, we discuss potential models in which differences in neural synchrony and brain noise can account for

Fourier-transform-limited light pulses were obtained at the laser-plasma interaction point of a 100-TW peak-power laser in vacuum. The spectral-phase distortion induced by the dispersion mismatching between the stretcher, compressor, and dispersive materials was fully compensated for by means of an adaptive closed-loop. The coherent temporal contrast on the sub-picosecond time scale was two orders of magnitude higher than that without adaptive control. This novel phase control capability enabled the experimental study of the dependence of laser wakefield acceleration on the spectralphase of intense laser light.

A new screened hydrogenic model is presented. The screening constants depend both on the principal n and orbital l quantum numbers. They have been obtained from numerical fits over a large data base containing ionization potentials and one-electron excitation energies of ions. A rapid and original method to compute the bound-bound and bound-free oscillator strengths is proposed. The discrete spectrum and the series continuum are connected by continuity, and the sum rules are respected. The screened hydrogenic average atom is well-adapted to describe multicharged ion plasmas in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). Using the key principle of statistical mechanics, it is shown first that this model is properly defined and thermodynamically coherent. Secondly, a new method of detailed ionization stage accounting of a LTE plasma is explained. It can be used to reconstruct the distribution of integer charge states in such a plasma from any average atom model. The l -splitting allows one-electron transitions between two subshells with the same principal quantum number n. They may be of great importance when the Rosseland opacity is computed. Though, methods of classical statistical mechanics are required to calculate the distribution of the configurations around the average atom one and so to improve the spectral opacities. The splitting in integer ionic stages can be easily included. The formalism is tested by comparisons with theoretical and experimental results published in the literature. From the photoabsorption spectra encountered, the main results are the correct estimations of both the Rosseland opacity and the detailed charge degrees accounting. (author).

Tetrahedral solid state structures of the blue potassium tris(aryloxo)cobaltate(II)-tetrahydrofurane complexes of the formula KCo(OAr) 3·2thf (OAr = o-chloro-, o-bromo-, m-chloro-, p-bromo, 2,6-dichloro-, 2,4-dichloro- or 2,4-dimethylphenoxide) undergo solid-phase thermal tetrahedral to octahedral transformation accompanied by change in their colours from blue to rose (one-step thermochromism). Magnetic moments, electronic and infrared spectral studies supported these results. Thermal treatment of theses complexes leads to the loss of the crystallized thf molecule yielding also blue tetrahedral complexes. However, further heating leads to the loss of the coordinated thf molecule and the formation of rose octahedral trimeric products. TG-DTA results showed that the, two solvated thf molecules were eliminated in two steps. Mass spectral studies and IR intensity measurements confirmed the trimeric behaviour of the rose octahedral geometry of thermal products. Conductance measurements of solutions of these complexes in thf indicated that they behave as non-electrolytes.

Groundbased telescopic CCD images of 36 selected locations on the moon were obtained in five 'standard' bandpasses at 12 phase angles ranging from -78 deg to +75 deg to measure phase function effects on the ratio values used to quantify the abundance of TiO2 and qualitatively indicate soil maturity. Consistent with previous studies, we find that the moon is 'bluer' at small phase angles, but that the effect on the ratio values for TiO2 abundance for the phase angles of our data is on the order of the measurement uncertainties throughout the range of abundances found in the mare. The effect is more significant as seen from orbiting spacecraft over a range of selenographic latitude. Spectral ratio images (400/560 and 400/730 nm) were used to map the abundance of TiO2 using the empirical relation found by Charlette et al from analysis of returned lunar soils. Additionally, the 950/560 and 950/730 nm image ratios were used to define the regions of mature mare soil in which the relation is valid. Although the phase function dependence on wavelength was investigated and quantified for small areas and the integrated disc, the effect specifically on TiO2 mapping was not rigorously determined. For consistency and convenience in observing the whole lunar front side, our mapping utilized images taken -15 deg less than alpha less than 15 deg when the moon was fully illuminated from earth; however, this includes the strong opposition peak.

The present work combines remote sensing observations and detailed microphysics cloud modeling to investigate two altocumulus cloud cases observed over Leipzig, Germany. A suite of remote sensing instruments was able to detect primary ice at rather warm temperatures of -6°C. For comparison, a second mixed phase case at about -25°C is introduced. To further look into the details of cloud microphysical processes a simple dynamics model of the Asai-Kasahara type is combined with detailed spectral microphysics forming the model system AK-SPECS. Temperature and humidity profiles are taken either from observation (radiosonde) or GDAS reanalysis. Vertical velocities are prescribed to force the dynamics as well as main cloud features to be close to the observations. Subsequently, sensitivity studies with respect to dynamical as well as ice microphysical parameters are carried out with the aim to quantify the most important sensitivities for the cases investigated. For the cases selected, the liquid phase is mainly determined by the model dynamics (location and strength of vertical velocity) whereas the ice phase is much more sensitive to the microphysical parameters (ice nuclei (IN) number, ice particle shape). The choice of ice particle shape may induce large uncertainties which are in the same order as those for the temperature-dependent IN number distribution.

We suggest that gauge interactions of SU(3) gluons and fundamental quarks produce three distinct types of infrared behavior in Dirac spectral density $\\rho(\\lambda, V \\to \\infty)$ (Fig.1), effectively labeling three types of dynamical phases occurring in these theories. The two monotonic (standard) cases entail confinement with chiral symmetry breaking and the lack of both, respectively. The bimodal (anomalous) option signifies deconfined phase with broken chiral symmetry. This generalization rests on the following. $(\\alpha)$ We show, via numerical simulation, that previously observed bimodal behavior in N$_f$=0 theory past deconfinement temperature $T_c$ is stable with respect to both infrared and ultraviolet cutoffs, concluding that this prototypical anomalous phase indeed exists. The width of the anomalous peak while small (few MeV at $T/T_c=1.12$), is non-zero in the infinite-volume limit. $(\\beta)$ We show in detail that transition to bimodal $\\rho(\\lambda)$ in N$_f$=0 coincides with Z$_3$ deconfinement...

An updated B-scan method is proposed for measuring the evolution of thermal deformation fields in polymers. In order to measure the distributions of out-of-plane deformation and normal strain field, phase-contrast spectral optical coherence tomography (PC-SOCT) was performed with the depth range and resolution of 4.3 mm and 10.7 μm, respectively, as thermal loads were applied to three different multilayer samples. The relation between temperature and material refractive index was predetermined before the measurement. After accounting for the refractive index, the thermal deformation fields in the polymer were obtained. The measured thermal expansion coefficient of silicone sealant was approximately equal to its reference value. This method allows correctly assessing the mechanical properties in semitransparent polymers.

With continuing improvements in both standoff- and point-sensing techniques, there is an ongoing need for high-quality infrared spectral databases. The Northwest Infrared Database (NWIR) contains quantitative, gas-phase infrared spectra of nearly 500 pure chemical species that can be used for a variety of applications such as atmospheric monitoring, biomass burning studies, etc. The data, recorded at 0.1 cm-1 resolution, are pressure broadened to one atmosphere (N2) in order to mimic atmospheric conditions. Each spectrum is a composite composed of multiple individual measurements. Recent updates to the database include over 60 molecules that are known or suspected biomass-burning effluents. Examples from this set of measurements will be presented and experimental details will be discussed in the context of the utility of NWIR for environmental applications.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a reconfigurable two-dimensional (temporal-spectral) time domain spectralphase encoding (SPE) scheme for coherent optical code-division-multiple-access (OCDMA) application. The time-domain SPE scheme is robust to wavelength drift of the light source and is very flexible and compatible with the fiber optical system. In the proposed scheme, the ultra-short optical pulse is stretched by dispersive device and the SPE is done in time domain using high speed phase modulator. A Fiber Bragg Gratings array is used for generating the two-dimensional wavelength hopping pattern while the high speed phase modulator is used for generating the spectralphase pattern. The proposed scheme can enable simultaneous generation of the time domain spectralphase encoding and DPSK data modulation using only a single phase modulator. In the experiment, the two-dimensional SPE codes have been generated and modulated with 2.5-Gb/s DPSK data using a single phase modulator. Transmission of the 2.5-Gb/s DPSK data over 49km fiber with BER<10-9 has been demonstrated successfully. The proposed scheme exhibits the potential to simplify the architecture and improve the security of the OCDMA system.

The spectral complex conductivity of a water-bearing sand during interaction with carbon dioxide (CO2) is influenced by multiple, simultaneous processes. These processes include partial saturation due to the replacement of conductive pore water with CO2 and chemical interaction of the reactive CO2 with the bulk fluid and the grain-water interface. We present a laboratory study on the spectral induced polarization of water-bearing sands during exposure to and flow-through by CO2. Conductivity spectra were measured successfully at pressures up to 30 MPa and 80 °C during active flow and at steady-state conditions concentrating on the frequency range between 0.0014 and 100 Hz. The frequency range between 0.1 and 100 Hz turned out to be most indicative for potential monitoring applications. The presented data show that the impact of CO2 on the electrolytic conductivity may be covered by a model for pore-water conductivity, which depends on salinity, pressure and temperature and has been derived from earlier investigations of the pore-water phase. The new data covering the three-phase system CO2-brine-sand further show that chemical interaction causes a reduction of surface conductivity by almost 20 per cent, which could be related to the low pH-value in the acidic environment due to CO2 dissolution and the dissociation of carbonic acid. The quantification of the total CO2 effect may be used as a correction during monitoring of a sequestration in terms of saturation. We show that this leads to a correct reconstruction of fluid saturation from electrical measurements. In addition, an indicator for changes of the inner surface area, which is related to mineral dissolution or precipitation processes, can be computed from the imaginary part of conductivity. The low frequency range between 0.0014 and 0.1 Hz shows additional characteristics, which deviate from the behaviour at higher frequencies. A Debye decomposition approach is applied to isolate the feature dominating the

The microstructure and mechanical behavior of dual-phase steels are highly sensitive to the variation of the process (heat treatments). Online control by magnetic method is relevant. A measurement under applied stress must be considered. The dual-phase is a two-phase medium (ferrite / martensite). Each phase can be considered as a sphere embedded in a homogeneous equivalent medium. The model used for each phase is based on a magneto-mechanical coupled model. This is an explicit single crystalline model representative of the behavior of the corresponding phase. Localization rules allow the simulation of the two-phases medium. Experiments and modeling are compared.

In the present thesis we have applied the self consistent random phase approximation (SCRPA) to the Hubbard model with a small number of sites (a chain of 2, 4, 6,... sites). Earlier SCRPA had produced very good results in other models like the pairing model of Richardson. It was therefore interesting to see what kind of results the method is able to produce in the case of a more complex model like the Hubbard model. To our great satisfaction the case of two sites with two electrons (half-filling) is solved exactly by the SCRPA. This may seem a little trivial but the fact is that other respectable approximations like 'GW' or the approach with the Gutzwiller wave function yield results still far from exact. With this promising starting point, the case of 6 sites at half filling was considered next. For that case, evidently, SCRPA does not any longer give exact results. However, they are still excellent for a wide range of values of the coupling constant U, covering for instance the phase transition region towards a state with non zero magnetisation. We consider this as a good success of the theory. Non the less the case of 4 sites (a plaquette), as indeed all cases with 4n sites at half filling, turned out to have a problem because of degeneracies at the Hartree Fock level. A generalisation of the present method, including in addition to the pairs, quadruples of Fermions operators (called second RPA) is proposed to also include exactly the plaquette case in our approach. This is therefore a very interesting perspective of the present work. (author)

Integer and fractional spectral self-imaging effects are induced on infinite-duration periodic frequency combs (probe signal) using cross-phase modulation (XPM) with a parabolic pulse train as pump signal. Free-spectral-range tuning (fractional effects) or wavelength-shifting (integer effects) of the frequency comb can be achieved by changing the parabolic pulse peak power or/and repetition rate without affecting the spectral envelope shape and bandwidth of the original comb. For design purposes, we derive the complete family of different pump signals that allow implementing a desired spectral self-imaging process. Numerical simulation results validate our theoretical analysis. We also investigate the detrimental influence of group-delay walk-off and deviations in the nominal temporal shape or power of the pump pulses on the generated output frequency combs.

The aim of this work is to study the addition of oligosaccharides and glycolipids in lamellar phases of the cationic surfactant DDAB (di-dodecyl-dimethyl-ammonium bromide). Two steps have been followed: the determination of phases prisms and the thermodynamic interpretation in terms of molecular interactions. In order to characterize these systems, two new experimental small angle scattering methods have been perfected: 1) a neutron scattering contrast variation method which allows to study the adsorption of aqueous solution in bilayers and 2) a capillary concentration gradient method to establish directly and quantitatively the phases diagrams of ternary systems by X rays scattering. It has been pointed out that the oligosaccharides induce a depletion attractive force on the lamellar-lamellar equilibrium of the DDAB when they are excluded of the most concentrated phase. For the two studied glycolipids: 2-O lauroyl-saccharose and N-lauroyl N-nonyl lactitol, the ternary phase diagrams water-DDAB-glycolipid have been established in terms of temperature. Critical points at ambient temperature have been given. The osmotic pressure in concentrated lamellar phases has been measured. It has been shown that glycolipids increase the hydration repulsion at short distance and that the electrostatic repulsion is outstanding and unchanged at high distance if there is at less 1 mole percent of ionic surfactant. In a dilute solution, glycolipids decrease the maximum swelling of lamellar phases, with a competition between the lamellar phase and the micellae dilute phase for water. (O.M.). 165 refs.

Biomolecular interaction analysis (BIA) plays vital role in wide variety of fields, which include biomedical research, pharmaceutical industry, medical diagnostics, and biotechnology industry. Study and quantification of interactions between natural biomolecules (proteins, enzymes, DNA) and artificially synthesized molecules (drugs) is routinely done using various labeled and label-free BIA techniques. Labeled BIA (Chemiluminescence, Fluorescence, Radioactive) techniques suffer from steric hindrance of labels on interaction site, difficulty of attaching labels to molecules, higher cost and time of assay development. Label free techniques with real time detection capabilities have demonstrated advantages over traditional labeled techniques. The gold standard for label free BIA is surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) that detects and quantifies the changes in refractive index of the ligand-analyte complex molecule with high sensitivity. Although SPR is a highly sensitive BIA technique, it requires custom-made sensor chips and is not well suited for highly multiplexed BIA required in high throughput applications. Moreover implementation of SPR on various biosensing platforms is limited. In this research work spectral domain phase sensitive interferometry (SD-PSI) has been developed for label-free BIA and biosensing applications to address limitations of SPR and other label free techniques. One distinct advantage of SD-PSI compared to other label-free techniques is that it does not require use of custom fabricated biosensor substrates. Laboratory grade, off-the-shelf glass or plastic substrates of suitable thickness with proper surface functionalization are used as biosensor chips. SD-PSI is tested on four separate BIA and biosensing platforms, which include multi-well plate, flow cell, fiber probe with integrated optics and fiber tip biosensor. Sensitivity of 33 ng/ml for anti-IgG is achieved using multi-well platform. Principle of coherence multiplexing for multi

Spectroscopic imaging has been proved to be an effective tool for many applications in a variety of fields, such as biology, medicine, agriculture, remote sensing and industrial process inspection. However, due to the demand for high spectral and spatial resolution it became extremely challenging to design and implement such systems in a miniaturized and cost effective manner. Using a Compressive Sensing (CS) setup based on a single variable Liquid Crystal (LC) retarder and a sensor array, we present an innovative Miniature Ultra-Spectral Imaging (MUSI) system. The LC retarder acts as a compact wide band spectral modulator. Within the framework of CS, a sequence of spectrally modulated images is used to recover ultra-spectral image cubes. Using the presented compressive MUSI system, we demonstrate the reconstruction of gigapixel spatio-spectral image cubes from spectral scanning shots numbering an order of magnitude less than would be required using conventional systems.

We investigated the applicability of global phases (epicentral distances of ≥ 120° and ≥ 150°) for the H/V spectral ratio to identify the fundamental resonance frequency. We applied the method to delineate a part of Neuquén basin in Argentina without the need for active seismic sources. We obtained

This paper provides a new formula to take into account phase differences in the determination of an equivalent von Mises stress power spectral density (PSD) from multiple random inputs. The obtained von Mises PSD can subsequently be used for fatigue analysis. The formula was derived for use in the c

Full Text Available Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA and its modifications such as PhaseDoppler Particle Anemometry (P/DPA is point-wise method for optical nonintrusive measurement of particle velocity with high data rate. Conversion of the LDA velocity data from temporal to frequency domain – calculation of power spectral density (PSD of velocity fluctuations, is a non trivial task due to nonequidistant data sampling in time. We briefly discuss possibilities for the PSD estimation and specify limitations caused by seeding density and other factors of the flow and LDA setup. Arbitrary results of LDA measurements are compared with corresponding Hot Wire Anemometry (HWA data in the frequency domain. Slot correlation (SC method implemented in software program Kern by Nobach (2006 is used for the PSD estimation. Influence of several input parameters on resulting PSDs is described. Optimum setup of the software for our data of particle-laden air flow in realistic human airway model is documented. Typical character of the flow is described using PSD plots of velocity fluctuations with comments on specific properties of the flow. Some recommendations for improvements of future experiments to acquire better PSD results are given.

We study spectral densities for systems on lattices, which, at a phase transition display, power-law spatial correlations. Constructing the spatial correlation matrix we prove that its eigenvalue density shows a power law that can be derived from the spatial correlations. In practice time series are short in the sense that they are either not stationary over long time intervals or not available over long time intervals. Also we usually do not have time series for all variables available. We shall make numerical simulations on a two-dimensional Ising model with the usual Metropolis algorithm as time evolution. Using all spins on a grid with periodic boundary conditions we find a power law, that is, for large grids, compatible with the analytic result. We still find a power law even if we choose a fairly small subset of grid points at random. The exponents of the power laws will be smaller under such circumstances. For very short time series leading to singular correlation matrices we use a recently developed technique to lift the degeneracy at zero in the spectrum and find a significant signature of critical behavior even in this case as compared to high temperature results which tend to those of random matrix models.

The paper presents a new and simple method of measuring the strain sensitivity of phase modal birefringence (dΔn/dε) of polarization maintaining fibers (PMFs). The method is based on measuring the spectral strain sensitivity of a strain sensor in the configuration of a Sagnac interferometer with a PMF. The measured spectral strain sensitivity of the sensor is used to determine the strain sensitivity of phase modal birefringence and the polarimetric strain sensitivity of the PMF. In addition, a new procedure for determining the sign of the strain sensitivity of phase and group modal birefringence of a PMF. Using this method, measurements of the strain sensitivity of modal birefringence of PMFs were performed: a PM-PCF and a Bow-Tie fiber, in the wavelength range 1460-1600 nm. A comparison of the results of these measurements with results obtained using other methods for the same types of fibers is presented.

We report on the implementation of a spectralphase transfer scheme from near IR to deep UV, in which the frequency conversion step is based on the broadband phase-matched four-wave mixing in a gas-filled hollow core waveguide. Micro joule level femtosecond pulses at 260 nm were generated by nonlinear mixing of a Ti:sapphire laser and its second-harmonic. The transfer of a π-step phase in a controllable manner was proposed and confirmed by a modulation observed in the generated deep UV femtosecond pulse spectrum due to an interference process. Numerical simulations confirmed our results.

Investigating the stability of borosilicate glasses used in the nuclear industry with respect to phase separation requires to estimate the Gibbs free energies of the various phases appearing in the material. In simulation, using current computational resources, a direct state-sampling of a glassy system with respect to its ensemble statistics is not ergodic and the estimated ensemble averages are not reliable. Our approach consists in generating, at a given cooling rate, a series of quenches, or paths connecting states of the liquid to states of the glass, and then in taking into account the probability to generate the paths leading to the different glassy states in ensembles averages. In this way, we introduce a path ensemble formalism and calculate a Landau free energy associated to a glassy meta-basin. This method was validated by accurately mapping the free energy landscape of a 38-atom glassy cluster. We then applied this approach to the calculation of the Gibbs free energies of binary amorphous Lennard-Jones alloys, and checked the correlation between the observed tendencies to order or to phase separate and the computed Gibbs free energies. We finally computed the driving force to phase separation in a simplified three-oxide nuclear glass modeled by a Born-Mayer-Huggins potential that includes a three-body term, and we compared the estimated quantities to the available experimental data. (author)

Material decomposition in absorption-based X-ray CT imaging suffers certain inefficiencies when differentiating among soft tissue materials. To address this problem, decomposition techniques turn to spectral CT, which has gained popularity over the last few years. Although proven to be more effective, such techniques are primarily limited to the identification of contrast agents and soft and bone-like materials. In this work, we introduce a novel conditional likelihood, material-decomposition method capable of identifying any type of material objects scanned by spectral CT. The method takes advantage of the statistical independence of spectral data to assign likelihood values to each of the materials on a pixel-by-pixel basis. It results in likelihood images for each material, which can be further processed by setting certain conditions or thresholds, to yield a final material-diagnostic image. The method can also utilize phase-contrast CT (PCI) data, where measured absorption and phase-shift information can be treated as statistically independent datasets. In this method, the following cases were simulated: (i) single-scan PCI CT, (ii) spectral PCI CT, (iii) absorption-based spectral CT, and (iv) single-scan PCI CT with an added tumor mass. All cases were analyzed using a digital breast phantom; although, any other objects or materials could be used instead. As a result, all materials were identified, as expected, according to their assignment in the digital phantom. Materials with similar attenuation or phase-shift values (e.g., glandular tissue, skin, and tumor masses) were especially successfully when differentiated by the likelihood approach.

Full Text Available Arctic boundary-layer clouds were investigated with remote sensing and in situ instruments during the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR campaign in March and April 2007. The clouds formed in a cold air outbreak over the open Greenland Sea. Beside the predominant mixed-phase clouds pure liquid water and ice clouds were observed. Utilizing measurements of solar radiation reflected by the clouds three methods to retrieve the thermodynamic phase of the cloud are introduced and compared. Two ice indices IS and IP were obtained by analyzing the spectral pattern of the cloud top reflectance in the near infrared (1500–1800 nm wavelength spectral range which is characterized by ice and water absorption. While IS analyzes the spectral slope of the reflectance in this wavelength range, IS utilizes a principle component analysis (PCA of the spectral reflectance. A third ice index IA is based on the different side scattering of spherical liquid water particles and nonspherical ice crystals which was recorded in simultaneous measurements of spectral cloud albedo and reflectance.

Radiative transfer simulations show that IS, IP and IA range between 5 to 80, 0 to 8 and 1 to 1.25 respectively with lowest values indicating pure liquid water clouds and highest values pure ice clouds. The spectral slope ice index IS and the PCA ice index IP are found to be strongly sensitive to the effective diameter of the ice crystals present in the cloud. Therefore, the identification of mixed-phase clouds requires a priori knowledge of the ice crystal dimension. The reflectance-albedo ice index IA is mainly dominated by the uppermost cloud layer (τ<1.5. Therefore, typical boundary-layer mixed-phase clouds with a liquid cloud top layer will

Since many years, multiphase (n > 3) machines represent a growing research interest in the electrical machines domain. This type of machine can be used for many systems like automotive electrical traction, electric ship propulsion, wind farms or high-power industrial applications. Above all multiphase machines, the six phases wounded rotor synchronous machine brings a huge interest. Subsequently, using that kind of machine in any application requires a good understanding of the machine model and its respective converters. Hence, simulation represents a great way to study the behaviour and design of such applications that uses six phases wounded rotor synchronous machines. The present research concerns the study and simulation of six phase synchronous machinesconverters systems. From this project resulted the implementation of the six phases wound rotor salient pole synchronous machine in the Demos library of Matlab SimPowerSytems. In terms of study, a six phase machine electric drive is designed as well as a six phase machine implementation in a type 4 wind farm. The modeling of the six phase synchronous machine is fully detailed for the electrical part and the mechanical part. Then, the voltage source inverter electric drive with hysteresis control is conceived. Simulations of torque control, speed control and degraded mode of the machine are executed. The results illustrate the electric drive efficiency. This is followed by the type 4 wind turbine application of the machine. The wind farm is connected to a 120 kV grid, where a voltage drop fault appears at the 120 kV bar for a duration of six 60 Hz cycles. The results show a good operation of the regulators during the fault. This application is also subjected to a degraded mode, where results illustrate once again a good system regulation. Also, for the electric drive and the wind farm applications, a comparative study is made for the use of an asymmetrical versus symmetrical winding configuration of the machine

For the specification of phase-noise requirements for the front-end of a HiperLAN/2 system we investigated available literature on the subject. Literature differed in several aspects. One aspect is in the type of phase-noise used (Wiener phase-noise or small-angle phase noise). A Wiener phase-noise

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Microcalorimeter x-ray instruments are non-dispersive, high spectral resolution, broad-band, high cadence imaging spectrometers. We have been developing these...

The spectral operator was introduced by Lapidus and van Frankenhuijsen (2006 Fractal Geometry, Complex Dimensions and Zeta Functions: Geometry and Spectra of Fractal Strings) in their reinterpretation of the earlier work of Lapidus and Maier (1995 J. Lond. Math. Soc. 52 15-34) on inverse spectral problems and the Riemann hypothesis. In essence, it is a map that sends the geometry of a fractal string onto its spectrum. In this review, we present the rigorous functional analytic framework given by Herichi and Lapidus (2012) and within which to study the spectral operator. Furthermore, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the invertibility of the spectral operator (in the critical strip) and therefore obtain a new spectral and operator-theoretic reformulation of the Riemann hypothesis. More specifically, we show that the spectral operator is quasi-invertible (or equivalently, that its truncations are invertible) if and only if the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) does not have any zeros on the vertical line Re(s) = c. Hence, it is not invertible in the mid-fractal case when c=\\frac{1}{2}, and it is quasi-invertible everywhere else (i.e. for all c ∈ (0, 1) with c\

The spectral operator was introduced by M. L. Lapidus and M. van Frankenhuijsen [La-vF3] in their reinterpretation of the earlier work of M. L. Lapidus and H. Maier [LaMa2] on inverse spectral problems and the Riemann hypothesis. In essence, it is a map that sends the geometry of a fractal string onto its spectrum. In this survey paper, we present the rigorous functional analytic framework given by the authors in [HerLa1] and within which to study the spectral operator. Furthermore, we also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the invertibility of the spectral operator (in the critical strip) and therefore obtain a new spectral and operator-theoretic reformulation of the Riemann hypothesis. More specifically, we show that the spectral operator is invertible (or equivalently, that zero does not belong to its spectrum) if and only if the Riemann zeta function zeta(s) does not have any zeroes on the vertical line Re(s)=c. Hence, it is not invertible in the mid-fractal case when c=1/2, and it is invertib...

Post-accidental waste management is an essential step to carry out strategies of reduction of contamination of a contaminated land and to carry out strategies of population protection. Different actions that have to be carried out have been identified: waste collection, waste packaging, waste transport, stabilisation of putrefying waste, treatments to reduce the volume of the wastes, storage and waste disposal. The volumes of post-accidental wastes (mainly very low activity wastes) could be large, for the first scenarios studied by the CODIRPA. The different constraints lead to recommend the building of waste treatment and elimination facilities as near as possible from the places where the wastes are produced. Although wastes will have to be taken care of as soon as the transition phase starts, it will take months to build waste treatment facilities and disposal repositories. Therefore, it seems necessary-to build storage facilities from the beginning of the transition phase. Anyway, in order to manage the wastes as quickly as possible, some actions have to be set up anticipatory. The work of the group will be carried on in 2008 and 2009 to go into detail concerning regulatory, organizational, health, technical and financial aspects related to the different treatment and disposal solutions identified. (authors)

Full Text Available The Hartley transform is a mathematical transformation which is closely related to the better known Fourier transform. The properties that differentiate the Hartley Transform from its Fourier counterpart are that the forward and the inverse transforms are identical and also that the Hartley transform of a real signal is a real function of frequency. The Whitened Hartley spectrum, which stems from the Hartley transform, is a bounded function that encapsulates the phase content of a signal. The Whitened Hartley spectrum, unlike the Fourier phase spectrum, is a function that does not suffer from discontinuities or wrapping ambiguities. An overview on how the Whitened Hartley spectrum encapsulates the phase content of a signal more efficiently compared with its Fourier counterpart as well as the reason that phase unwrapping is not necessary for the Whitened Hartley spectrum, are provided in this study. Moreover, in this study, the product–convolution relationship, the time-shift property and the power spectral density function of the Hartley transform are presented. Finally, a short-time analysis of the Whitened Hartley spectrum as well as the considerations related to the estimation of the phasespectral content of a signal via the Hartley transform, are elaborated.

Within the SARNET Severe Accident Research Network of excellence, the Corium topic covers all the behaviour of corium (mixture formed by the molten materials arising from a postulated nuclear reactor severe accident) from early phase of core degradation to in or ex-vessel corium recovery with the exception of corium interaction with water, direct containment heating and fission product release. The Corium topic regroups in three work packages the critical mass of competence to improve significantly the corium behaviour knowledge. The spirit of the SARNET networking is to share the knowledge, the facilities and the simulation tools for severe accidents, so to reach a better efficiency and to rationalize the R and D effort at European level. Extensive benchmarking has been launched in most of the areas of research. These benchmarks were mainly dedicated to the recalculation of analytical experiments, integral experiments or reactor applications. Eventually, all the knowledge will be accumulated in the ASTEC severe accident simulation code through physical model improvements and extension of validation database. This report summarizes the progress that has been achieved in the frame of the networking activities for the four and half years of the FP6 project. (authors)

Frequency conversion of nonclassical light enables robust encoding of quantum information based upon spectral multiplexing that is particularly well-suited to integrated-optics platforms. Here we present an intrinsically deterministic linear-optics approach to spectral shearing of quantum light pulses and show it preserves the wave-packet coherence and quantum nature of light. The technique is based upon an electro-optic Doppler shift to implement frequency shear of heralded single-photon wave packets by ±200 GHz, which can be scaled to an arbitrary shift. These results demonstrate a reconfigurable method to controlling the spectral-temporal mode structure of quantum light that could achieve unitary operation.

The goal of this work was the realisation of a setup for spectral broadening and subsequent compression of 25 fs laser pulses provided by a commercial Ti:Sapphire based CPA laser system by means of the hollow core fibre chirped mirror compressor technique. For the spectral broadening a vessel containing the hollow waveguide filled with a noble gas serving as the nonlinear medium was set up and an alignment procedure was developed. Neon was chosen as the nonlinear medium for the self-phase modulation of the pulses. With this setup spectral broadening, sufficient for supporting sub 5 fs pulses, was observed. The spectra at different input energies and neon gas pressures were measured and the stability of these and their respective Fourier transform-limited pulses determined in order to find an operating point. For the compression of the self-phase modulated pulses a chirped mirror compressor was designed and set up, but not tested yet. The layout of a single-shot intensity autocorrelator capable of estimating the pulse duration of sub 10 fs pulses was given.

We present the high time resolution observations of one of the Langmuir wave packets obtained in the source region of a solar type III radio burst. This wave packet satisfies the threshold condition of the supersonic modulational instability, as well as the criterion of a collapsing Langmuir soliton, i.e., the spatial scale derived from its peak intensity is less than that derived from its short time scale. The spectrum of t his wave packet contains an intense spectral peak at local electron plasma frequency, f(sub pe) and relatively weaker peaks at 2f(sub pe) and 3f(sub pe). We apply the wavelet based bispectral analysis technique on this wave packet and compute the bicoherence between its spectral components. It is found that the bicoherence exhibits two peaks at (approximately f(sub pe), approximately f(sub pe)) and (approximately f(sub pe) approximately 2f(sub pe)), which strongly suggest that the spectral peak at 2f(sub pe) probably corresponds to the second harmonic radio emission, generated as a result of the merging of antiparallel propagating Langmuir waves trapped in the collapsing Langmuir soliton, and, the spectral peak at 3f(sub pe) probably corresponds to the third harmonic radio emission, generated as a result of merging of a trapped Langmuir wave and a second harmonic electromagnetic wave.

We demonstrate a scheme to scale the bandwidth by several times while enhancing spectral flatness of frequency combs generated by intensity and phase modulation of CW lasers using cascaded four-wave mixing in highly nonlinear fiber.

A spectral element method (SEM) is presented to simulate two-phase fluid flow (oil and water phase) in petroleum reservoirs. Petroleum reservoirs are porous media with heterogeneous geologic features, and the flow of two immiscible phases involves sharp, moving interfaces. The governing equations of motion are time-dependent, non-linear PDEs with strong hyperbolic nature. A fully-coupled numerical scheme using discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method with nodal spectral element basis functions for spatial discretization, and an implicit Runge-Kutta type time-stepping is developed to solve the PDEs in a robust, stable manner. Isoparameteric mapping is used to generate grids for reservoir and well geometry. We present the performance capabilities of the DG scheme with high-order basis functions to accurately resolve sharp fluid interfaces and a variety of heterogeneous geologic features. High-order convergence of SEM is demonstrated. Numerical results are presented for reservoir flows with various injection-production patterns. Typical reservoir heterogeneities like low-permeable regions, impermeable shale barriers, etc. are included in the numerical tests. Comparisons with commonly used finite volume methods and linear and quadratic finite element methods are presented. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co.

Full Text Available Spectroscopic observations of close binary star V455 Cygni reveal many lines that originate in interstellar and circumstellar medium and the atmo­sphere of the Earth; we found over two hundred such spectral features, and in this paper we present the list of telluric lines we identified through comparison with HITRAN database of molecular lines. The lines that remain unidentified or show peculiar behavior will be discussed in the second part of the paper. .

Acoustic vibrations in tissue are often difficult to image, requiring high-speed scanning, high sensitivity and nanometer-scale axial resolution. Here we use spectrally encoded interferometry to measure the vibration pattern of two-dimensional surfaces, including the skin of a volunteer, at nanometric resolution, without the need for rapid lateral scanning and with no prior knowledge of the driving acoustic waveform. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of this technique for measuring tissue biomechanics using simple and compact imaging probes.

Understanding the electromechanical response of bulk polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics requires scale-bridging approaches. Recent advances in fast numerical methods to compute the homogenized mechanical response of materials with heterogeneous microstructure have enabled the solution of hitherto intractable systems. In particular, the use of a Fourier-based spectral method as opposed to the traditional finite element method has gained significant interest in the homogenization of periodic microstructures. Here, we solve the periodic, electro-mechanically-coupled boundary value problem at the mesoscale of polycrystalline ferroelectrics in order to extract the effective response of barium titanate (BaTiO3) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) under applied electric fields. Results include the effective electric hysteresis and the associated butterfly curve of strain vs. electric field for mean stress-free electric loading. Computational predictions of the 3D polycrystalline response show convincing agreement with our experimental electric cycling and strain hysteresis data for PZT-5A. In addition to microstructure-dependent effective physics, we also show how finite-difference-based approximations in the spectral solution scheme significantly reduce instability and ringing phenomena associated with spectral techniques and lead to spatial convergence with h-refinement, which have been major challenges when modeling high-contrast systems such as polycrystals.

We perform revised spectral calibrations for the AKARI near-infrared grism to quantitatively correct for the effect of the wavelength-dependent refractive index. The near-infrared grism covering the wavelength range of 2.5--5.0 micron with a spectral resolving power of 120 at 3.6 micron, is found to be contaminated by second-order light at wavelengths longer than 4.9 micron which is especially serious for red objects. First, we present the wavelength calibration considering the refractive index of the grism as a function of the wavelength for the first time. We find that the previous solution is positively shifted by up to 0.01 micron compared with the revised wavelengths at 2.5--5.0 micron. In addition, we demonstrate that second-order contamination occurs even with a perfect order-sorting filter owing to the wavelength dependence of the refractive index. Second, the spectral responses of the system from the first- and second-order light are simultaneously obtained from two types of standard objects with dif...

Spatiospectral and spatiotemporal characteristics of flared waveguide Y-coupled laser arrays are studied for the cases of both CW and pulsed operation. Regular sustained self-pulsations were observed for both operation modes. It is suggested that the pulsations are due to the destabilization of phase locking which is caused by amplitude phase coupling.

Usibor® 1500P coupons are austenitized in a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical simulator using a two-step heating procedure in an argon atmosphere. Variations in spectral emissivity are measured in-situ using a near infrared spectrometer and ex situ with a Fourier transform infrared reflectometer. Microstructural evolution and surface roughness are investigated using optical microscopy, FE-scanning electron microscopy, and a surface profilometer. A series of phase transformations of Al-Fe-Si intermetallic phases at the coating/steel substrate interface cause the surface phase and surface roughness to change, which in turn influences the spectral emissivity. At the beginning of the first heating step, the coupons have very low spectral emissivity, due to the molten Al-Si coating. Spectral emissivity increases significantly with increasing soak time from 5 to 12 minutes, associated with the surface phase transformation of the coating into Al7Fe2Si intermetallic phase and an increase in surface roughness. Through the second step heating at 1173 K (900 °C), the spectral emissivity shows a gradually decreasing trend with increasing soak time, caused by the surface phase transformation from Al5Fe2 into AlFe intermetallic phase with a decrease in surface roughness.

Usibor® 1500P coupons are austenitized in a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical simulator using a two-step heating procedure in an argon atmosphere. Variations in spectral emissivity are measured in-situ using a near infrared spectrometer and ex situ with a Fourier transform infrared reflectometer. Microstructural evolution and surface roughness are investigated using optical microscopy, FE-scanning electron microscopy, and a surface profilometer. A series of phase transformations of Al-Fe-Si intermetallic phases at the coating/steel substrate interface cause the surface phase and surface roughness to change, which in turn influences the spectral emissivity. At the beginning of the first heating step, the coupons have very low spectral emissivity, due to the molten Al-Si coating. Spectral emissivity increases significantly with increasing soak time from 5 to 12 minutes, associated with the surface phase transformation of the coating into Al7Fe2Si intermetallic phase and an increase in surface roughness. Through the second step heating at 1173 K (900 °C), the spectral emissivity shows a gradually decreasing trend with increasing soak time, caused by the surface phase transformation from Al5Fe2 into AlFe intermetallic phase with a decrease in surface roughness.

The German Commission to Review the Financing for the Phase-out of Nuclear Energy (Kommission zur Ueberpruefung der Finanzierung des Kernenergieausstiegs, KFK) has unanimously adopted its report on 27 April 2016. Now the Federal Government is working on the implementation of the recommendations, which are directed to profound changes in the present system of financing and action responsibilities of government and operators. The proposals by KFK on their meaning and scope are described and analyzed. An overview of the tasks to implement the recommendations at the legislative and contractual level is given. The work of KFK is also classified in its social context and assessed as a viable compromise.

We describe a method for differential phase measurement of Faraday rotation from multiple depth locations simultaneously. A polarization-maintaining fiber-based spectral-domain interferometer that utilizes a low-coherent light source and a single camera is developed. Light decorrelated by the orthogonal channels of the fiber is launched on a sample as two oppositely polarized circular states. These states reflect from sample surfaces and interfere with the corresponding states of the reference arm. A custom spectrometer, which is designed to simplify camera alignment, separates the orthogonal channels and records the interference-related oscillations on both spectra. Inverse Fourier transform of the spectral oscillations in k-space yields complex depth profiles, whose amplitudes and phase difference are related to reflectivity and Faraday rotation within the sample, respectively. Information along a full depth profile is produced at the camera speed without performing an axial scan for a multisurface sample. System sensitivity for the Faraday rotation measurement is 0.86 min of arc. Verdet constants of clear liquids and turbid media are measured at 687 nm.

Symmetric Lorentzian and asymmetric Fano line shapes are fundamental spectroscopic signatures that quantify the structural and dynamical properties of nuclei, atoms, molecules, and solids. This study introduces a universal temporal-phase formalism, mapping the Fano asymmetry parameter q to a phase {\\phi} of the time-dependent dipole-response function. The formalism is confirmed experimentally by laser-transforming Fano absorption lines of autoionizing helium into Lorentzian lines after attosecond-pulsed excitation. We also prove the inverse, the transformation of a naturally Lorentzian line into a Fano profile. A further application of this formalism amplifies resonantly interacting extreme-ultraviolet light by quantum-phase control. The quantum phase of excited states and its response to interactions can thus be extracted from line-shape analysis, with scientific applications in many branches of spectroscopy.

Particle laden flows occur in industrial applications ranging from droplets in gas turbines to fluidized bed in chemical industry. Prediction of the dispersed phase properties such as concentration and dynamics are crucial for the design of more efficient devices that meet the new pollutant regulations of the European community. Numerical simulation coupling Lagrangian tracking of discrete particles with DNS or LES of the carrier phase provide a well established powerful tool to investigate particle laden flows. Such numerical methods have the drawback of being numerically very expensive for practical applications. Numerical simulations based on separate Eulerian balance equations for both phases, coupled through inter-phase exchange terms might be an effective alternative approach. This approach has been validated for the case of tracer particles with very low inertia that follow the carrier phase almost instantaneously due to their small response time compared with the micro-scale time scales of the carrier phase. Objective of this thesis is to extend this approach to more inertial particles that occur in practical applications such as fuel droplets in gas turbine combustors. Existing results suggest a separation of the dispersed phase velocity into a correlated and an uncorrelated component. The energy related to the uncorrelated component is about 30% of the total particle kinetic energy when the particle relaxation time is comparable to the Lagrangian integral time scale. The presence of this uncorrelated motion leads to stress terms in the Eulerian balance equation for the particle momentum. Models for this stress terms are proposed and tested. Numerical simulations in the Eulerian framework are validated by comparison with simulations using Lagrangian particle tracking. Additionally coupling of the Eulerian transport equations for the particles to combustion models is tested. (author)

The formation of new motor memories, which is fundamental for efficient performance during adaptation to a visuo-motor rotation, occurs when accurate planning is achieved mostly with feedforward mechanisms. The dynamics of brain activity underlying the switch from feedback to feedforward control is still matter of debate. Based on the results of studies in declarative learning, it is likely that phase synchronization of low and high frequencies as well as their temporal modulation in power amplitude underlie the formation of new motor memories during visuo-motor adaptation. High-density EEG (256 electrodes) was recorded in 17 normal human subjects during adaptation to a visuo-motor rotation of 60° in four incremental steps of 15°. We found that initial learning is associated with enhancement of gamma power in a right parietal region during movement execution as well as gamma/theta phase coherence during movement planning. Late stages of learning are instead accompanied by an increase of theta power over that same right parietal region during movement planning, which is correlated with the degree of learning and retention. Altogether, these results suggest that the formation of new motor memories and, thus, the switch from feedback to feedforward control is associated with the modulation of gamma and theta spectral activities, with respect to their amplitude and phase, during movement planning and execution. Specifically, we propose that gamma/theta phase coupling plays a pivotal role in the integration of a new representation into motor memories.

We have investigated the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phase change across a range of excitation wavelengths (i.e. spectral-phase) using the Fresnel's equations and Transfer Matrix technique with emphasis on optimizing refractive index sensing performance. Having evaluated the phase change characteristics upon varying different sets of parameters, our results indicate the possibility of achieving extremely high resolution within a wide range of sample refractive index (1.3330-1.3505) at a fixed angle of incidence. We also demonstrate that the double-layer (silver/gold or copper/gold) configuration holds very promising characteristics for SPR sensing, and it is possible to achieve a detection limit of 7.9×10-9 RIU (refractive index unit) if one uses a phase measurement resolution of 2×10-4 rad. Among all the factors, material of the metal film and its thickness are found to affect performance most. This work provides a comprehensive analysis of the interplay between various system parameters.

An exoplanet-exomoon system presents a superposition of phase curves to observers - the dominant component varies according to the planetary period, and the lesser component varies according to both the planetary and the lunar periods. If the spectra of the two bodies differ significantly, then it is likely that there are wavelength regimes where the contrast between the moon and planet is significantly larger. In principle, this effect could be used to isolate periodic oscillations in the combined phase curve. Being able to detect the exomoon component would allow a characterization of the exomoon radius, and potentially some crude atmospheric data. We run a parameter survey of combined exoplanet-exomoon phase curves, which shows that for most sets of planet-moon parameters, the lunar component of the phase curve is undetectable to current state-of-the-art transit observations. Even with future transit survey missions, measuring the exomoon signal will most likely require photometric precision of 10 parts per million or better. The only exception to this is if the moon is strongly tidally heated or in some way self-luminous. In this case, measurements of the phase curve at wavelengths greater than a few μm can be dominated by the lunar contribution. Instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope and its successors are needed to make this method feasible.

The optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique has proved to be a useful method in biomedical areas such as ophthalmology, dentistry, dermatology, among many others. In all these applications the main target is to reconstruct the internal structure of the samples from which the physician's expertise may recognize and diagnose the existence of a disease. Nowadays OCT has been applied one step further and is used to study the mechanics of some particular type of materials, where the resulting information involves more than just their internal structure and the measurement of parameters such as displacements, stress and strain. Here we report on a spectral OCT system used to image the internal 3D microstructure and displacement maps from a PMMA (Poly-methyl-methacrylate) sample, subjected to a deformation by a controlled three point bending and tilting. The internal mechanical response of the polymer is shown as consecutive 2D images.

The transmission characteristics of phase modulation pulse transmitted through the filter in the power amplifier are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The narrow bandpass filter can induce large temporal modula-tion depth for the phase modulation pulse and induce double amplitude modulation(AM)if the frequency shift is lower than half bandwidth of the signal spectrum. We should choose a wider bandwidth filter to minimize the impact of the filter on the output pulse and suppress the amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) for the power fiber amplifier. These results are of benefit to the design of the fiber front end system.

We investigate connections between the opposition phase curves and the spectra from ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths of stony meteorites. We use two datasets: the reflectance dataset of Capaccioni et al. ([1990] Icarus, 83, 325), which consists of optical phase curves (from 2° to 45°) of 17 stony meteorites (three carbonaceous chondrites, 11 ordinary chondrites, and three achondrites), and the spectral dataset from the RELAB database consisting of near-ultraviolet to near-infrared spectra of the same meteorites. We re-analyzed the first dataset and fit it with two morphological models to derive the amplitude A, the angular width HWHM of the surge and the slope S of the linear part. Our re-analysis confirms that stony meteorites have a non-monotonic behavior of the surge amplitude with albedo, which is also observed in planetary surfaces (Déau et al. [2013] Icarus, 226, 1465), laboratory samples (Nelson et al. [2004] Proc. Lunar Sci. Conf., 35, p. 1089) and asteroids (Belskaya and Shevchenko [2000] Icarus, 147, 94). We find a very strong correlation between the opposition effect morphological parameters and the slope of the spectra between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm. In particular, we found that meteorites with a positive amplitude-albedo correlation have a positive spectral slope between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm, while meteorites with a negative amplitude-albedo correlation have a negative spectral slope between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm. We have ruled out the role of the meteorite samples' macro-properties (grain size, porosity and macroscopic roughness) in the correlations found because these properties were constant during the preparation of the samples. If this hypothesis is correct, this implies that other properties like the composition or the micro-properties (grain inclusions, grain shape or microscopic roughness) could have a preponderant role in the non-monotonic behavior of the surge morphology with albedo at small and moderate phase angles. Further

This thesis aims at characterizing aerosols from plumes (biomass burning, industrial discharges, etc.) with hyper-spectral imagery. We want to estimate the optical properties of emitted particles and also their micro-physical properties such as number, size distribution and composition. To reach our goal, we have built a forward semi-analytical model, named APOM (Aerosol Plume Optical Model), which allows to simulate the radiative effects of aerosol plumes in the spectral range [0,4-2,5 {mu}m] for nadir viewing sensors. Mathematical formulation and model coefficients are obtained from simulations performed with the radiative transfer code COMANCHE. APOM is assessed on simulated data and proves to be accurate with modeling errors between 1% and 3%. Three retrieval methods using APOM have been developed: L-APOM, M-APOM and A-APOM. These methods take advantage of spectral and spatial dimensions in hyper-spectral images. L-APOM and M-APOM assume a priori knowledge on particles but can estimate their optical and micro-physical properties. Their performances on simulated data are quite promising. A-APOM method does not require any a priori knowledge on particles but only estimates their optical properties. However, it still needs improvements before being usable. On real images, inversion provides satisfactory results for plumes above water but meets some difficulties for plumes above vegetation, which underlines some possibilities of improvement for the retrieval algorithm. (author)

We present broad-band, multi-epoch X-ray spectroscopy of the pulsating ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 5907. Simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR data from 2014 are best described by a multi-color black-body model with a temperature gradient as a function of accretion disk radius significantly flatter than expected for a standard thin accretion disk (T(r) ~ r^{-p}, with p=0.608^{+0.014}_{-0.012}). Additionally, we detect a hard power-law tail at energies above 10 keV, which we interpret as being due to Comptonization. We compare this observation to archival XMM-Newton, Chandra, and NuSTAR data from 2003, 2012, and 2013, and investigate possible spectral changes as a function of phase over the 78d super-orbital period of this source. We find that observations taken around phases 0.3-0.4 show very similar temperature profiles, even though the observed flux varies significantly, while one observation taken around phase 0 has a significantly steeper profile. We discuss these findings in light of the recent...

The French Groupe des Investigateurs Nationaux pour l'Etude des Cancers Ovariens (GINECO) conducted a multicenter phase II study of carboplatin and paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) to evaluate the efficacy and side effects of this combination in pretreated advanced ovarian cancer. Patients with progressive ovarian carcinoma during or after platinum-based chemotherapy received paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 intravenously over 3 hours followed by intravenous carboplatin over 30 minutes every 4 weeks. The dose of carboplatin was calculated using a projected area under the concentration-time curve of 5 mg/mL x min. Of the 50 patients entered, 50 were evaluable for toxicity and 42 for response. There were eight complete and 10 partial responses, for an overall response rate of 43% (95% confidence interval, 28% to 56%). Overall response rates in platinum refractory patients and in those with early (> or = 3 and or = 12 months) relapse was 28%, 33%, and 71%, respectively. Median response duration, progression-free survival, and overall survivals were 8, 6, and 14 months, respectively. The most frequent and severe toxicity was myelosuppression. Grades 3 and 4 neutropenia occurred in 30% and 23% of cycles, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was administered in 6%. Only one case of neutropenic fever was observed. Grades 3 and 4 thrombocytopenia occurred in 3% and 1% of cycles, respectively. Alopecia and moderate nausea or vomiting were frequent. Transitory peripheral neuropathy was present in 45% of patients but was severe in only one patient. One early death was observed due to progressive disease and possibly to therapy. The combination of paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 as a 3-hour infusion and carboplatin dosed to an area under the concentration-time curve of 5 is an effective therapy in patients previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy and may be administered safely to outpatients who relapse after one or two lines of chemotherapy.

We report on the performance of target irradiation at the SG-II high-power laser facility with a continuous phase plate (CPP) and the technique of smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD). Simulative and experimental results are presented, where the irradiation uniformity and energy concentration of the target spots are analyzed. The results show that the designed CPP can focus the spot energy into the desired region and shape a profile with steep edge and flat top, but the actual performance of the fabricated CPP needs some improvements. It is also proved that the CPP is insensitive to the long-scale wavefront distortion in the incident beam. The one-dimensional SSD configuration evidently works in smoothing the fine-scale intensity modulation inside the target spot.

The thermal cycling absorption process (TCAP) is a separation technique that can be considered as an evolution of the discontinuous chromatography in gaseous phase used in Cea-Dam for the isotopic separation of tritium. The shift in affinity of the palladium for the 3 hydrogen isotopes allows their separation. In the TCAP process we use the shift of the separation property in terms of operating temperatures: the ability to separate is significant at the ambient temperature while it is almost zero over 1000 C degrees. Preliminary studies have allowed the selection of palladium deposits on alumina as lining. 2 pilot installations have been designed. (A.C.)

Full Text Available The capabilities of cubic Equations of State (EoS in the correlation and the prediction of phase equilibria at hyperbaric conditions is examined. PVT data of pure compounds as well as VLE and volumetric data of binary mixtures up to 2000 bar are used. Correlation and prediction results are presented with the translated and modified Peng-Robinson (t - mPR EoS and EoS/GE models. The performance of cubic EoS with a single interaction parameter (kij in describing VLE is remarkable considering the level of pressures involved. The same is valid for the PVT results including the relative liquid volumes of the C1/nC24 system. With typical errors of about 10% deviations in pressure of 100 - 200 bar are, of course, encountered which can be eliminated by the use of second interaction coefficient in the covolume combining rule. Predicted kij values obtained from generalized correlations developed from low pressure VLE data provide reasonable results for systems with hydrocarbons up to nC16 even at high pressures, but fail for higher asymmetric ones. Volume translation is essential for PVT predictions. The temperature independent translation of t - mPR and that of Jhaveri and Yougren give very satisfactory results. LCVM provides the best results of the EoS/GE models studied and gives very good predictions for rather symmetric systems which become poorer with asymmetric ones at very high pressures. La capacité des équations d'état (EoS cubiques pour corréler et prédire les équilibres de phases en conditions hyperbares est analysée. Les données PVT de corps purs ainsi que les données d'équilibres liquide-vapeur (VLE et volumétriques pour des mélanges binaires, jusqu'à 2000 bar sont utilisées. Les résultats des corrélations et des prédictions sont présentés pour l'équation de Peng-Robinson translatée et modifiée (t - mPR, ainsi que pour les modèles EoS/GE. Les performances des EoS cubiques avec un paramètre d'interaction unique (kij pour

This brief account considers recent developments of some catalytic systems in selective liquid-phase oxidations. Radical chain auto-oxidations which lead to some large-scale specialities are presented: i) the two-stage processes to Nylone intermediates (cyclohexane to cyclohexanol-cyclohexanone mixtures and nitric acid oxidation to adipic acid); ii) Amoco oxidation based on MC catalysts to prepare terephthalic acid with p-xylene as the raw material. Homogeneous catalytic processes with hetero-lytic reactions are illustrated first by the Arco-Lyndell method, which uses a molybdenum catalyst that epoxidizes propylene by transferring an oxygen atom from tert-butyl hydroperoxide. All new propylene oxide technologies focus on co product-free routes. Novel results with hydrogen peroxide and titanium, rhenium, tungsten and molybdenum oxo-peroxo species are presented with catalytic oxidations of organic substrates under mild conditions. Significant results appear in the modelling enzyme active sites (bio-mimetic oxidations) and on non-metal catalysts for homogeneous oxidations. These new systems could compete with transition-metal-based systems for fine chemicals. (authors)

This work concerns the understanding of a physical phenomenon which is important for the future course of magnetic confinement fusion research: namely the anomalous deformation in the near infrared of radiation from tokamak plasma facing components under plasma particle impact. The goal of this work was to reproduce this phenomenon in laboratory experiments, characterize it and explain it, so that the measurements of the temperature of plasma facing components can be made with confidence. Laboratory experiments have been performed using an ECR ions source and a helicon plasma source. The spectral luminance deformation has been observed on graphite surface under electrons and ions bombardment and the amplitude of this phenomenon was found to depend on the type of material used and the power density of the incident particles. A systematic consideration and evaluation of alternative explanations for the observed spectral deformation has been made. A number of plausible interpretations has been considered and discarded as e.g. Bremsstrahlung radiation, or assigned a low probability as the luminescence effect. The possible partial transparency of the material has also been considered at some length, but finally discarded because the low thermal conductivity of the graphite materials under consideration does not permit a strong enough temperature gradient to cause the observed deformation. The possible explanation is reduced to the non uniform surface temperature due to the presence of hot spots during particle bombardment. This hypothesis implies that the measured luminance is the contribution of several temperatures. The measured spectral luminance deformation, basing on hot spots hypothesis, is simulated. This hypothesis allows to asses the surface temperature, the hot spots temperature and the hot spots coverage on the surface. These results are validated using a thermal model of dust in radiate equilibrium. This model allows us to deduce an average size of the dust

We present our analysis of the double-lined, O-binary HD 159176 based on observations made with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). We use cross-correlation methods to obtain radial velocities, confirm the orbital elements, and estimate the UV flux ratio. In addition, we cross-correlate specific regions of the IUE spectra corresponding to Fe v, Fe iv, He ii, N iii, and O iv features to determine the phase dependence of the cross-correlation strength for those features. We tomographically reconstruct the individual component spectra, which we classify as O6.5 V + O7 V. We present the first light-curve analysis of observations from the HIPPARCOS satellite combined with data from Thomas & Pachoulakis and determine an orbital inclination, i=43\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 5+/- 4\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 5. Both stars are well within their Roche surfaces. Our derived masses, {M}p/{M}⊙ =46.4{+/- }9.514.3 and {M}s/{M}⊙ =44.{+/- }9.113.6, are constrained by the known distance and reddening to NGC 6383 and the derived optical flux ratio, and agree within errors with predicted evolutionary masses. Both components display phase variations corresponding to the classical Struve-Sahade effect in the UV, Fe iv, N iii, and O iv cross-correlation functions. The Fe v features have remarkably uniform profile strengths except in observations prior to conjunctions, a possible post-quadrature Struve-Sahade effect. The derived orbital elements from the various ions are not affected by the Struve-Sahade variability. Both the spectral variability and derived orbital semi-amplitudes of He ii λ 1640 suggest that this feature is formed preferentially on the inner hemispheres of the component stars.

In the research of inertial confinement fusion, laser plasma interaction (LPI) is becoming a key problem that affects ignition. Here, multi-frequency modulation (Multi-FM) smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD), continuous phase plate (CPP) and polarization smoothing (PS) were experimentally studied and implemented on the SG-III laser facility. After using these techniques, the far field distribution of SG-Ⅲ laser facility can be adjusted, controlled and repeated accurately. The output spectrums of the cascade phase modulators used for Multi-FM SSD were stable and the FM-to-AM effect can be restrained. Experiments on SG-III laser facility indicate that when the number of color cycles adopts 1, imposing SSD with 3.3 times diffraction limit (TDL) did not lead to pinhole closure in the spatial filters of preamplifier and main amplifiers with 30-TDL pinhole size. The nonuniformity of the focal spots using Multi-FM SSD, CPP and PS drops to 0.18, comparing to 0.26 with CPP+SSD, 0.57 with CPP+PS and 0.84 with only CPP and wedged lens. Polarization smoothing using flat birefringent plate in the convergent beam of final optics assembly (FOA) was studied. The PS plates were manufactured and equipped on SG-III laser facility for LPI research. Combined beam smoothing and polarization manipulation were also studied to solve the LPI problem. Results indicate that through adjusting dispersion directions of SSD beams in a quad, two dimensional SSD can be obtained. Using polarization control plate (PCP), polarization on the near field and far field can be manipulated, providing new method to solve LPI problem in indirect drive laser fusion.

The crystalline phase transition of aliphatic nylon 10/10 has been investigated on the basis of the simultaneous measurement of wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scatterings, the infrared spectral measurement and the molecular dynamics calculation. An interpretation of infrared spectra taken for a series of nylon samples and the corresponding model compounds was successfully made, allowing us to assign the infrared bands of the planar-zigzag methylene segments reasonably. As a result the methylene segmental parts of molecular chains were found to experience an order-to-disorder transition in the Brill transition region, where the intermolecular hydrogen bonds are kept alive although the bond strength becomes weaker at higher temperature. The small-angle X-ray scattering data revealed a slight change in lamellar stacking mode in the transition region. The crystal structure has been found to change more remarkably in the temperature region immediately below the melting point, where the conformationally disordered chains experienced drastic rotational and translational motions without any constraints by hydrogen bonds, and the lamellar thickness increased largely along the chain axis. These experimental results were reasonably reproduced by the molecular dynamics calculation performed at the various temperatures.

Sleep disorders in humans have become a public health issue in recent years. Sleep can be analysed by studying the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded during a night's sleep. Alternating between sleep-wake stages gives information related to the sleep quality and quantity since this alternating pattern is highly affected during sleep disorders. Spectral composition of EEG signals varies according to sleep stages, alternating phases of high energy associated to low frequency (deep sleep) with periods of low energy associated to high frequency (wake and light sleep). The analysis of sleep in humans is usually made on periods (epochs) of 30-s length according to the original Rechtschaffen and Kales sleep scoring manual. In this work, we propose a new phase space-based (mainly based on Poincaré plot) algorithm for automatic classification of sleep-wake states in humans using EEG data gathered over relatively short-time periods. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated through a series of experiments involving EEG data from seven healthy adult female subjects and was tested on epoch lengths ranging from 3-s to 30-s. The performance of our phase space approach was compared to a 2-dimensional state space approach using the power spectral (PS) in two selected human-specific frequency bands. These powers were calculated by dividing integrated spectral amplitudes at selected human-specific frequency bands. The comparison demonstrated that the phase space approach gives better performance in the case of short as well as standard 30-s epoch lengths.

We introduce a new cascaded four-wave mixing technique that scales up the bandwidth of frequency combs generated by phase modulation of a continuous-wave (CW) laser while simultaneously enhancing the spectral flatness. As a result, we demonstrate a 10 GHz frequency comb with over 100 lines in a 10 dB bandwidth in which a record 75 lines are within a flatness of 1 dB. The cascaded four-wave mixing process increases the bandwidth of the initial comb generated by the modulation of a CW laser by a factor of five. The broadband comb has approximately quadratic spectralphase, which is compensated upon propagation in single-mode fiber, resulting in a 10 GHz train of 940 fs pulses.

The report presents globally the works done by the author in the thermohydraulic applied to nuclear reactors flows. It presents the studies done to the numerical simulation of the two phase flows in the steam generators and a finite element method to compute these flows. (author)

Spent nuclear fuel alteration in deep storage conditions may proceed by local oxidising conditions at the fuel / water interface under influence of alpha irradiation. However, due to the strong redox buffer capacity of the near-field materials (especially the canister and the geological media), most of the near-field environment will remain reducing. Due to the relative high concentration in silica in such system, coffinite USiO{sub 4}.n(H{sub 2}O) may be a relevant phase to consider as it has been suggested from the natural analogues observations (Oklo). The aim of this work was to assess the relevance of coffinitisation of the spent fuel phenomena. The results of the experimental work contest the thermodynamic predictions. Instead of coffinite, a new U(IV)-Si phase has been observed in water simulating storage conditions. The thermodynamic data on coffinite validated by OECD are based on the average concentration of dissolved silica present in natural system containing uraninite and quartz. As the silica concentration in natural groundwaters is more probably controlled by minerals like chalcedony or silica gel, the coffinite present with uraninite in such systems, is probably not in equilibrium even in 2-billion years- old geological sites. Based on the results of this study, coffinitisation of the spent nuclear fuel in deep geological disposal is not anticipated to be a dominant short term process. (author)

The federal government has decided to set up a ''Commission to review the financing of the nuclear power phase-out'' (KFK) on October 14, 2015. On April 27, 2016, KFK has submitted its final report. Proposed is the following fact: In the future, the one who have the financial security obligation, which also has the duty to act in the chain of nuclear waste management. Concretely, the tasks of storage and disposal of radioactive waste and the necessary resources be transferred to the state as security. For the remaining tasks, ie in particular the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power plants and the packaging of radioactive waste for interim storage, the tasks and financial assurance should remain with the company. For the storage and final disposal a public fund should be established. For a full deposit totaling 23.3 billion euros the risks for the storage and disposal will be transferred to the State. The liability of operators for interim storage and final disposal end with the complete transfer of funds and payment done of the full risk premium. For the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and the packaging of the radioactive waste it will then remain in the system of commercial law reserves. Although in terms of storage and final disposal shall be a departure of the system of the commercial law reserves. However, operators are being released from liabilities - at a time in which over decades and decades arising expenses are only partially quantifiable. [German] Die Bundesregierung hat am 14. Oktober 2015 die Einsetzung einer ''Kommission zur Ueberpruefung der Finanzierung des Kernenergieausstiegs'' (KFK) beschlossen. Am 27. April 2016 hat die KFK ihren Abschlussbericht vorgelegt. Vorgeschlagen wird darin Folgendes: Kuenftig soll derjenige die finanzielle Sicherungspflicht haben, der auch die Pflicht zur Handlung in der Kette der nuklearen Entsorgung hat. Konkret sollen die Aufgaben der Zwischen- und

The Framatome M5{sup TM} Zr-Nb-O alloy with small amounts of Fe is of interest for nuclear applications (PWR fuel cladding).The behaviour of this kind of alloy for in-service conditions strongly depends on the microstructure. Therefore, a metallurgical study of alloys of the Zr-Nb-Fe-(O-Sn) system has been developed in order to study the influence of chemical composition variabilities of Nb, Fe and O and thermal treatments on the resultant microstructure. In order to get some insight on the physical metallurgy of Zr-Nb-Fe-(Sn,O) alloys and to minimize the experiments, it is useful to build a thermodynamic database. With this object, it was necessary to re-optimize and to calculate the low order binary systems such as Fe-Nb and Nb-Sn in order to assess the Zr-Nb-Fe-(Sn,O) system. Then, the experimental studies concerned: the influence of small variations in Nb and O contents on the {alpha}/{beta} transus temperatures. A comparison between experimental results and thermodynamic predictions showed a good agreement; the precipitation kinetics of {beta}Nb and intermetallic phases in the {alpha} phase domain. These experiments showed that the kinetics depends on the initial metallurgical conditions; the determination of the crystallographic structure and the stoichiometry of the ternary Zr-Nb-Fe intermetallic compounds as a function of the temperature. Finally, these experimental data were used to propose a first assessment of the Zr-Nb-Fe(O{approx}1200 ppm) system. (author)

This work deals with the modelling and numerical simulation of liquid-vapor phase transition phenomena. The study is divided into two part: first we investigate phase transition phenomena with a Van Der Waals equation of state (non monotonic equation of state), then we adopt an alternative approach with two equations of state. In the first part, we study the classical viscous criteria for selecting weak solutions of the system used when the equation of state is non monotonic. Those criteria do not select physical solutions and therefore we focus a more recent criterion: the visco-capillary criterion. We use this criterion to exactly solve the Riemann problem (which imposes solving an algebraic scalar non linear equation). Unfortunately, this step is quite costly in term of CPU which prevent from using this method as a ground for building Godunov solvers. That is why we propose an alternative approach two equations of state. Using the least action principle, we propose a phase changing two-phase flow model which is based on the second thermodynamic principle. We shall then describe two equilibrium submodels issued from the relaxations processes when instantaneous equilibrium is assumed. Despite the weak hyperbolicity of the last sub-model, we propose stable numerical schemes based on a two-step strategy involving a convective step followed by a relaxation step. We show the ability of the system to simulate vapor bubbles nucleation. (author)

The aim of this work is to establish a correlation between the organization of extracting molecules in organic phase and the implemented chemical equilibria. The first experimental data will be carried out on the chemical system of the DIAMEX process: DMDOHEMA/n-dodecane/HNO{sub 3}/H{sub 2}O/rare earth or actinide nitrate. Extraction isotherms will established in making the diamide concentration, the solute concentration, the acidity of the aqueous phase and the temperature vary. The different constituents will be titrated in organic and aqueous phases after extraction allowing thus to write an extraction equilibrium for each of the systems and to determine the bound constants. Then, a structural characterization of the organic phases will be considered in order to correlate the different organizations to the extraction constants, through several techniques as the surface tension measurements, the vapor pressure osmometry and the neutrons and X-rays small angle scattering which allow to characterize the size and geometry of the extractant aggregates as well as the interactions between them. (O.M.)

Since the Quebec Education Program came into effect in 2001, Quebec classrooms have again been teaching astronomy. Unfortunately, schools are ill-equipped to teach complex astronomical concepts, most of which occur outside school hours and over long periods of time. Furthermore, many astronomical phenomena involve celestial objects travelling through three-dimensional space, which we cannot access from our geocentric point of view. The lunar phases, a concept prescribed in secondary cycle one, fall into that category. Fortunately, schools can count on support from the planetarium, a science museum dedicated to presenting ultra-realistic simulations of astronomical phenomena in fast time and at any hour of the day. But what type of planetarium will support schools? Recently, planetariums also underwent their own revolution: they switched from analogue to digital, replacing geocentric opto-mechanical projectors with video projectors that offer the possibility of travelling virtually through a completely immersive simulation of the three-dimensional Universe. Although research into planetarium education has focused little on this new paradigm, certain of its conclusions, based on the study of analogue planetariums, can help us develop a rewarding teaching intervention in these new digital simulators. But other sources of inspiration will be cited, primarily the teaching of science, which views learning no longer as the transfer of knowledge, but rather as the construction of knowledge by the learners themselves, with and against their initial conceptions. The conception and use of constructivist learning environments, of which the digital planetarium is a fine example, and the use of simulations in astronomy will complete our theoretical framework and lead to the conception of a teaching intervention focusing on the lunar phases in a digital planetarium and targeting students aged 12 to 14. This teaching intervention was initially tested as part of development

In the frame of nuclear waste cycle, supramolecular organization of organic phases has been studied for DIAMEX solvent extraction process. A general methodology has been developed in order to determine surfactant properties of an extractant at high concentration. An illustration is given by a malonamide (DMDBTDMA) at 0.7 mol/L, in dodecane and contacted with water, at 23 deg C. The concentrations of monomers (0.3 mol/L) and aggregates (0.4 mol/L), c.m.c. (0.25 mol/L), aggregation number (4,4), aggregation constant (7.7) and finally aggregates interactions (U/kT = -1.6) are quantified. The method is based on simultaneous utilization of four experimental techniques (small X-ray and neutron scattering, vapour pressure osmometry and tensiometry) added to the model of Baxter. The structure of malonamide organic phase is depending on extractant concentration. (i) Below 0.2 mol/L, it is a quasi-molecular liquid fluid, extracting few amount of solutes. (ii) From 0.2 to 1 mol/L, it is a complex liquid fluid, containing small spherical aggregates of 5 extractant molecules in coexistence with monomers. This phase behaves like typical microemulsions with reverse micelles, through its stabilizing effect of penetrating oil and steric repulsion between extractants. (iii) Above 1 mol/L, the organic phase is able to extract huge amount of solutes. When HNO{sub 3} or Nd(NO{sub 3} ){sub 3} are extracted, a gel with a pseudo-lamellar structure is observed. With UO{sub 2} (NO{sub 3} ){sub 2} a solid crystal with a ratio DMDBTDMA/UO{sub 2} (NO{sub 3} ){sub 2} equal to 1/1 is characteristic of the organic phase. The 'third phase' due to attractive interactions between aggregates has exactly the same supramolecular structure than an 'unsplitted organic phase' of the same composition. Aggregates interactions are independent on the chemical affinity of the extractant for solutes. (author)

This study concerns the durability of oil-well cementing. Indeed, in oil well cementing a cement slurry is pumped down the steel casing of the well up the annular space between it and the surrounding rock to support and protect the casing. The setting conditions of pressure and temperature may be very high (up to 1000 bar and 250 deg C at the bottom of the oil-well). In this research, the hydration of the main constituent of cement, synthetic tri-calcium silicate Ca{sub 3}SiO{sub 2}, often called C{sub 3}S (C = CaO; S = SiO{sub 2} and H H{sub 2}O), is studied. Calcium Silicate hydrates are prepared in high-pressure cells to complete their phase diagram (P,T) and obtain the stability conditions for each species. Indeed, the phases formed in these conditions are unknown and the study consists in the hydration of C{sub 3}S at different temperatures, pressures, and during different times to simulate the oil-well conditions. In a first step (until 120 deg C at ambient pressure) the C-S-H, a not well crystallized and non-stoichiometric phase, is synthesized: it brings adhesion and mechanical properties., Then, when pressure and temperature increase, crystallized phases appear such as jaffeite (Ca{sub 6}(Si{sub 2}O{sub 7})(OH){sub 6}) and hillebrandite (Ca{sub 2}(SiO{sub 3})(OH){sub 2}). Silicon {sup 29}Si Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (using standard sequences MAS, CPMAS) allow us to identify all the silicates hydrates formed. Indeed, {sup 29}Si NMR is a valuable tool to determine the structure of crystallized or not-well crystallized phases of cement. The characterization of the hydrated samples is completed by other techniques: X- Ray Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The following results are found: jaffeite is the most stable phase at C/S=3. To simulate the hydration of real cement, hydration of C{sub 3}S with ground quartz and with or without super-plasticizers is done. In those cases, new phases appear: kilchoanite mainly, and xonotlite. A large amount of

The aim of this work was to determine how phase transition s under ball-milling depend on the milling conditions and to find out if one can rationalize such transitions with the theory of driven alloys. We have chosen two phase transitions: the order-disorder transition in Fe Al and the precipitation-dissolution NiGe. In the case of Fe Al we have found that the steady-state long range order parameter achieved under ball milling intensity; moreover the same degree of order is achieved starting from an ordered alloy or a disordered solid solution. On the way to fully disordered state the degree of order either decreases monotonically or goes through a short lived transient state. This behaviour is reminiscent of a first order transition while the equilibrium transition is second order. All the above features are well reproduced by a simple model of driven alloys, which was originally build for alloys under irradiation. The stationary degree of order results of two competitive atomic jump mechanisms: the forced displacements induced by the shearing of the grains, and the thermally activated jumps caused by vacancies migrations. Finally we have performed atomistic simulations with a Monte Carlo kinetic algorithm, which revealed the role of the fluctuations in the intensity of the forcing. Moreover we have shown that specific atomistic mechanisms are active in a dilute NiGe solid solution which might lead to ball milling induced precipitation in under-saturated solid solution. (author). 149 refs.

In the quantum field theory the problem of infinite values has been solved empirically through a method called renormalization, this method is satisfying only in the framework of renormalization group. It is in the domain of statistical physics and continuous phase transitions that these issues are the easiest to discuss. Within the framework of a course in theoretical physics the author introduces the notions of continuous limits and universality in stochastic systems operating with a high number of freedom degrees. It is shown that quasi-Gaussian and mean field approximation are unable to describe phase transitions in a satisfying manner. A new concept is required: it is the notion of renormalization group whose fixed points allow us to understand universality beyond mean field. The renormalization group implies the idea that long distance correlations near the transition temperature might be described by a statistical field theory that is a quantum field in imaginary time. Various forms of renormalization group equations are presented and solved in particular boundary limits, namely for fields with high numbers of components near the dimensions 4 and 2. The particular case of exact renormalization group is also introduced. (A.C.)

RS Cae is the third target in our series of XMM-Newton observations of soft X-ray-dominated polars. Our observational campaign aims to better understand and describe the multiwavelength data, the physical properties of the system components, and the short- and long-term behavior of the component fluxes in RS Cae. We employ stellar atmosphere, stratified accretion-column, and widely used X-ray spectral models. We fit the XMM-Newton spectra, model the multiband light curves, and opt for a mostly consistent description of the spectral energy distribution. Results. Our XMM-Newton data of RS Cae are clearly dominated by soft X-ray emission. The X-ray light curves are shaped by emission from the main accretion region, which is visible over the whole orbital cycle, interrupted only by a stream eclipse. The optical light curves are formed by cyclotron and stream emission. The XMM-Newton X-ray spectra comprise a black-body-like and a plasma component at mean temperatures of 36eV and 7keV. The spectral fits give eviden...

We present a simple and fast phase aberration compensation method in digital holographic microscopy (DHM) for quantitative phase imaging of living cells. By analyzing the frequency spectrum of an off-axis hologram, phase aberrations can be compensated for automatically without fitting or pre-knowledge of the setup and/or the object. Simple and effective computation makes the method suitable for quantitative online monitoring with highly variable DHM systems. Results from automated quantitative phase imaging of living NIH-3T3 mouse fibroblasts demonstrate the effectiveness and the feasibility of the method.

In the course of this work, 5 mm diameter InGaAs pin detectors were produced which met or exceeded all of the goals of the program. The best results achieved were: shunt resistance of over 300 K ohms; rise time of less than 300 ns; contact resistance of less than 20 ohms; quantum efficiency of over 50 percent in the 0.5 to 1.7 micron range; and devices were maintained and operated at 125 C without deterioration for over 100 hours. In order to achieve the goals of this program, several major technological advances were realized, among them: successful design, construction and operation of a hydride VPE reactor capable of growing epitaxial layers on 2 inch diameter InP substrates with a capacity of over 8 wafers per day; wafer processing was upgraded to handle 2 inch wafers; a double layer Si3N4/SiO2 antireflection coating which enhances response over the 0.5 to 1.7 micron range was developed; a method for anisotropic, precisely controlled CH4/H2 plasma etching for enhancement of response at short wavelengths was developed; and electronic and optical testing methods were developed to allow full characterization of detectors with size and spectral response characteristics. On the basis of the work and results achieved in this program, it is concluded that large size, high shunt resistance, high quantum efficiency InGaAs pin detectors are not only feasible but also manufacturable on industrial scale. This device spans a significant portion of visible and near infrared spectral range and it will allow a single detector to be used for the 0.5 to 1.7 micron spectral region, rather than the presently used silicon (for 0.5 to 1.1 microns) and germanium (0.8 to 1.7 microns).

The recording density in holographic data storage (HDS) systems is determined by the dynamic range of the recording medium. If a hologram is recorded with a small exposure, the consumption amount of the dynamic range per hologram is reduced, and the recording density can be improved. In this report, we propose a digital image multiplexing/demultiplexing method using spatial spectral diffusion and a virtual phase conjugation technique to reduce the consumption amount of the dynamic range in a recording medium. In our method, multiple signals are simultaneously recorded in a medium by multiplexing those signals using a beam combiner before recording, unlike the general multiplexing method of HDS. Then, each original signal can be reproduced independently by utilizing the property of a random diffuser and a phase-conjugated light. In the simulation, we confirmed that our method can improve the recording density because the consumption of the dynamic range is reduced.

The objective of this thesis is to present a methodology, based on the projection methods used in statistical physics and on the wavelet approach, which allows to obtain various classes of information. A coherent modelling was elaborated as the tools used for generating and solving the evolution equations, expressed in terms of pertinent variables, are based on common concepts. The property of scale separation of the wavelet analysis allows an approximation hierarchy based on the geometrical structure of phase space to be defined. This information structuration offers the opportunity of solving the evolution equations with various degrees of precision by controlling the information loss and avoiding the sampling methods of Monte Carlo type. The application of this methodology to the case of heavy ion collisions needs an entirely numerical treatment of the density matrix evolution equation. This implies a very precise level of description in order to take into account the important dissipation effects occurring in intermediate energy nuclear dynamics. A proper solution less expensive was adopted by using the wavelets analytically expressed, this entailing also the testing of model validity by comparing its results with the analytical solutions. This model takes into account the structure of the system wave functions, thus conserving the microscopical information. The present methodology can be applied also at other energy domains providing the nuclear systems are subject to transient non steady-state regimes. The wavelet analysis was used extensively in the field of signal processing particularly to extract from background a physical signal and also in the field of turbulence phenomena 152 refs.

Purpose: Evaluation of the diagnostic value of the combined endorectal body-phased array technique regarding the staging of prostate cancers, especially in the differentiation between stages T2 and T3. Materials and Methods: Forty-two patients with biopsy-proven or clinically suspected prostate cancer were examined on a 1.5 T scanner (Siemens, Symphony) prior to radical prostatectomy. T{sub 2}-weighted TSE (axial, coronal) and T{sub 2}-weighted FSE (axial) sequences were obtained with and without fat suppression. After application of 0.2 mmol/kg bodyweight Gd-DTPA, T{sub 1}-weighted GRE sequences were obtained using dynamic MRI. All images were prospectively interpreted by two observers. The MR images were correlated with the histopathological findings of wide-area sections of prostatectomy specimens. Results: For the detection of extracapsular growth and seminal vesicle infiltration (T2 versus T3) the accuracy was between 94% and 97% (sensitivity 100%, specificity between 87% and 93%, observer 1 and 2). In two cases with a histologically proven stadium pT2b, observer 1 had diagnosed stadium pT3a. The results of observer 2 were marginally better in only one case, which was histologically proven to be pT2b and overstaged as pT3a. MRI did not lead to under-staging of a single tumor with regard to the differentiation between T2 and T3. Overall, the staging of the tumor stages (T1-T4) was correct in 25 of 33 cases (75%). The dynamic MRI showed no improvement regarding sensitivity (100%) and specificity (62%) and achieved a staging accuracy of only 75%. (orig.) [German] Zielsetzung: Evaluation der diagnostischen Wertigkeit der kombinierten Endorektal-Body-Array-Technik hinsichtlich des Stagings von Prostatakarzinomen, insbesondere der in der Abgrenzung der Stadien T2 gegen T3. Material und Methodik: Bei 42 Patienten mit bioptisch gesichertem oder klinisch hochgradigem Verdacht auf ein Prostatakarzinom wurden MRT-Untersuchungen an einem 1,5 Tesla-Geraet (Siemens

Absorption cross sections of 24 volatile and non-volatile derivatives of benzene in the ultraviolet (UV) and the infrared (IR) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum have been determined using a 1080 l quartz cell. For the UV a 0.5 m Czerny-Turner spectrometer coupled with a photodiode array detector (spectral resolution 0.15 nm) was used. IR spectra were recorded with an FT-IR spectrometer (Bruker IFS-88, spectral resolution 1 cm -1). Absolute absorption cross sections and the instrument function are given for the UV, while for the IR, absorption cross sections and integrated band intensities are reported. The study focused primarily on the atmospherically relevant methylated benzenes (benzene, toluene, o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, ethylbenzene, styrene) and their ring retaining oxidation products (benzaldehyde, o-tolualdehyde, m-tolualdehyde, p-tolualdehyde, phenol, o-cresol, m-cresol, p-cresol, 2,3-dimethylphenol, 2,4-dimethylphenol, 2,5-dimethylphenol, 2,6-dimethylphenol, 3,4-dimethylphenol, 3,5-dimethylphenol, 2,4,6-trimethylphenol and ( E,Z)- and ( E,E)-2,4-hexadienedial). The UV absorption cross sections reported here can be used for the evaluation of DOAS spectra (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) for measurements of the above compounds in the atmosphere and in reaction chambers, while the IR absorption cross sections will primarily be useful in laboratory studies on atmospheric chemistry, where FT-IR spectrometry is an important tool.

To observe the global column concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from space, the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) was launched on January 23, 2009, and has started the operational observation. Thermal and Near Infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation - Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) has been continuously measuring CO2 and CH4 distributions globally, and the retrieved column CO2 and CH4 data have been distributed to the public. To make a successful retrieval of XCO2 and XCH4, the spectral quality of Oxygen A-band is the most importance. Over five years in-orbit operation of TANSO-FTS, the spectral distortion related with input radiance on Oxygen A-band have been observed and reduced the retrieval accuracy and precision of XCO2 and XCH4. It suggests that the Oxygen A-band signal chain has non-linear response against input radiance. To characterize the non-linear response of signal chain against input signal levels, the test procedure is newly developed coupled with the modulated laser light, simultaneous signal acquisition system and on-ground TANSO-FTS, which called engineering model. The results present clearly that the analogue signal chain of Oxygen A-band excites the non-linear response both of amplitude and phase delay against input signal levels. Also, the non-linear interferogram drives both of the artificial spectra on the out-band region and the spectral distortion linked with absorption spectral lines. To improve the spectral quality of Oxygen A-band, these artificial and distorted spectra have to correct with properly. The newly correction algorithm for level-1 processing was developed and the corrected spectra were retrieved and validated by applying RemoTeC algorithm. Comparing with the previous version of level-1 products, the agreement between observation and theoretical calculation is well improved and the biases of biases of XCO2 and XCH4 against ground validation site are reduced.

Full Text Available Currently, whole of the measured “cosmological-red-shift ” is interpreted as due to the “metric-expansion-of-space”; so for the required “closer -density” of the universe, we need twenty times more mass-energy than the visible baryonic-matter contained in the universe. This paper proposes a new mechanism, which can account for good per- centage of the red-shift in the extra-galactic-light, greatly reducing the requirement of dark matter-energy. Also, this mechanism can cause a new kin d of blue-shift reported here, and their observational evidences. These spectral-s hifts are proposed to result due to cumulative phase-alteration of extra-galactic-light b ecause of vector-addition of: (i electric-field of extra-galactic-light and (ii that of the cosmic-microwave-background (CMB. Since the center-frequency of CMB is much lower than extra-galactic-light, the cumulative-phase-alteration results in red -shift, observed as an additional contribu- tor to the measured “cosmological red-shift”; and since the center-frequency of CMB is higher than the radio-frequency-signals used to measure velocity of space-probes like: Pioneer-10, Pioneer-11, Galileo and Ulysses, the cum ulative-phase-alteration re- sulted in blue-shift, leading to the interpretation of deceleration of these space-probes. While the galactic-light experiences the red-shift, and th e ranging-signals of the space- probes experience blue -shift, they are comparable in magnitude, providing a supportive- evidence for the new mechanism proposed here. More confirmative-experiments for this new mechanism are also proposed.

This work successfully develops a largely-gradient-pitched polymer-stabilized blue phase (PSBP) photonic bandgap (PBG) device with a wide-band spatial tunability in nearly entire visible region within a wide blue phase (BP) temperature range including room temperature. The device is fabricated based on the reverse diffusion of two injected BP-monomer mixtures with a low and a high chiral concentrations and afterwards through UV-curing. This gradient-pitched PSBP can show a rainbow-like reflec...

Thermal treatment of supersaturated Ti{sub 1-x}Al{sub x}N films (x {approx} 0.67) with a dominant ternary cubic-phase were performed in the 700-1000 {sup o}C range. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) shows that, for annealing temperatures up to 800 {sup o}C, the film structure undergoes the formation of coherent cubic AlN (c-AlN) and TiN (c-TiN) nanocrystallites via spinodal decomposition and, at higher temperatures ({>=}900 {sup o}C), GIXRD shows that the c-AlN phase transforms into the thermodynamically more stable hexagonal AlN (h-AlN). X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) at the Ti K-edge is consistent with spinodal decomposition taking place at 800 deg. while Al K-edge and N K-edge XANES and X-ray emission data show the nucleation of the h-AlN phase at temperatures >800 deg. C, in agreement with the two-step decomposition process for rock-salt structured TiAlN, which was also supported by X-ray diffraction patterns and first-principle calculations. Further, the resonant inelastic X-ray scattering technique near the N K-edge revealed that N{sub 2} is formed as a consequence of the phase transformation process.

This research thesis deals with the problem of phase modulations in power lasers (such as the MegaJoule laser which is developed in France) and their impact of different physical phenomena like the suppression of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (which is necessary to avoid optics damage) and the optical smoothing which allows a spatial homogenisation of focal stains. The author deeply discusses the phase modulation counterparts, and more particularly the FM-AM conversion which is the source of unwanted intensity modulation and of energy loss. He reports the development of a comprehensive modelling of phenomena generating FM-AM conversion on a power laser chain. He theoretically and experimentally studies two methods allowing the FM-AM conversion to be reduced to a given spectral distortion: the compensation of transfer functions and the modification of the phase modulation signal to make it less sensitive to spectral distortion effects. For this last method, he determines the ideal spectrum shape for the phase modulation, and proposes a method to approach it. He shows the feasibility of such a method and reports experiments showing to which extent these solutions may improve performance of power lasers. Finally, he proposed optimised solutions for the MegaJoule Laser.

This paper proposes a novel power compensation algorithm in three-phase four-wire systems by using p-q-r theory. The p-q-r theory is compared with two previous instantaneous power theories, p-q theory and cross-vector theory. The p-q-r theory provides two-degrees of freedom to control the system...

We investigate the localized surface modes in a structure consisting of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, a phase plate, and a metal layer. These modes are analogous to the optical Tamm states. The nonreciprocal transmission of polarized light propagating in the forward and backward directions is established. It is demonstrated that the transmission spectrum can be controlled by external fields acting on the cholesteric liquid crystal and by varying the plane of polarization of the incident light.

We present the discovery of a strongly phase-variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of the nearby, thermally-emitting, isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125. The absorption line was detected performing detailed phase-resolved spectroscopy in 20 XMM-Newton observations, covering the period May 2000 - September 2012. The feature has an energy of ~750eV, an equivalent width of ~30eV, and it is significantly detected for only ~20% of the pulsar rotation. The absorption feature appears to be stable over the timespan covered by the observations. Given its strong dependence on the pulsar rotational phase and its narrow width, a plausible interpretation is in terms of resonant proton cyclotron absorption/scattering in a confined magnetic structure very close to the neutron star surface. The inferred field in such a magnetic loop is B_loop ~ 2 x 10^{14} G, a factor of ~7 higher than the surface dipolar magnetic field.

The black hole binary GS 2023+338 exhibited an unprecedently bright outburst on June 2015. Since June 17th, the high energy instruments on board INTEGRAL detected an extremely variable emission during both bright and low luminosity phases, with dramatic variations of the hardness ratio on time scales of ~seconds. The analysis of the IBIS and SPI data reveals the presence of hard spectra in the brightest phases, compatible with thermal Comptonization with temperature kTe ~ 40 keV. The seed photons temperature is best fit by kT0 ~ 7 keV, that is too high to be compatible with blackbody emission from the disk. This result is consistent with the seed photons being provided by a different source, that we hypothesize to be a synchrotron driven component in the jet. During the brightest phase of flares, the hardness shows a complex pattern of correlation with flux, with a maximum energy released in the range 40-100 keV. The hard X-ray variability for E > 50 keV is correlated with flux variations in the softer band, ...

In recent research, propagation of plane electromagnetic (EM) waves through a turbulent medium with modified von Karman phase characteristics was modeled and numerically simulated using transverse planar apertures representing narrow phase turbulence along the propagation path. The case for extended turbulence was also studied by repeating the planar phase screens multiple times over the propagation path and incorporating diffractive effects via a split-step algorithm. The goal of the research reported here is to examine two random phenomena: (a) atmospheric turbulence due to von Karman-type phase fluctuations, and (b) chaos generated in an acousto-optic (A-O) Bragg cell under hybrid feedback. The latter problem has been thoroughly examined for its nonlinear dynamics and applications in secure communications. However, the statistical characteristics (such as the power spectral density (PSD)) of the chaos have not been estimated in recent work. To that end, treating the chaos phenomena as a random process, the time waveforms of the chaos intensity and their spectra are numerically evaluated over a (large) number of time iterations. These spectra are then averaged to derive the equivalent PSD of the A-O chaos. For the turbulence problem, an optical beam passing through an input pinhole is propagated through a random phase screen (placed at different locations) to a desired distance (typically near-field) under different levels of turbulence strength. The resulting spatial intensity profile is then averaged and the process repeated over a (large) number of pre-specified time intervals. From this data, once again, the turbulence PSD is calculated via the Fourier spectra of the average intensity snapshots. The results for the two systems are compared.

Direct measurement of absolute vibration parameters from different locations within the mammalian organ of Corti is crucial for understanding the hearing mechanics such as how sound propagates through the cochlea and how sound stimulates the vibration of various structures of the cochlea, namely, basilar membrane (BM), recticular lamina, outer hair cells and tectorial membrane (TM). In this study we demonstrate the feasibility a modified phase-sensitive spectral domain optical coherence tomography system to provide subnanometer scale vibration information from multiple angles within the imaging beam. The system has the potential to provide depth resolved absolute vibration measurement of tissue microstructures from each of the delay-encoded vibration images with a noise floor of ~0.3nm at 200Hz.

Spectral methods are a popular choice for constructing numerical approximations for smooth problems, as they can achieve geometric rates of convergence and have a relatively small memory footprint. In this paper, we introduce a general framework to convert a spectral-collocation method into a shooting-based variational integrator for Hamiltonian systems. We also compare the proposed spectral-collocation variational integrators to spectral-collocation methods and Galerkin spectral variational integrators in terms of their ability to reproduce accurate trajectories in configuration and phase space, their ability to conserve momentum and energy, as well as the relative computational efficiency of these methods when applied to some classical Hamiltonian systems. In particular, we note that spectrally-accurate variational integrators, such as the Galerkin spectral variational integrators and the spectral-collocation variational integrators, combine the computational efficiency of spectral methods together with the geometric structure-preserving and long-time structural stability properties of symplectic integrators.

We have resolved the solid-liquid phase transition of carbon at pressures around 150 GPa. High-pressure samples of different temperatures were created by laser-driven shock compression of graphite and varying the initial density from 1.30 g/cm3 to 2.25 g/cm3. In this way, temperatures from 5700 K to 14,500 K could be achieved for relatively constant pressure according to hydrodynamic simulations. From measuring the elastic X-ray scattering intensity of vanadium K-alpha radiation at 4.95 keV at a scattering angle of 126°, which is very sensitive to the solid-liquid transition, we can determine whether the sample had transitioned to the fluid phase. We find that samples of initial density 1.3 g/cm3 and 1.85 g/cm3 are liquid in the compressed states, whereas samples close to the ideal graphite crystal density of 2.25 g/cm3 remain solid, probably in a diamond-like state.

The aim of this work is to propose a methodology using diffraction methods and theoretical approaches of self-consistent modeling in order to analyze and better understand the mechanical behavior of each phase of hot-rolled duplex stainless steel. The purpose of the experimental study is to characterize the local mechanical behavior of phases under uniaxial loading. X-ray and neutron diffraction which enable to measure strains in each phase separately were used in this aim. Austenitic and ferritic phase stresses are determined by X-ray diffraction during tensile tests. Evolution of the elastic strains in each phase was measured by neutron diffraction using 'time-of-flight' method during tensile and compression tests. Elastic constants were given using the self-consistent model for a purely elastic deformation. To reproduce the mechanical behaviour of the studied material, self-consistent polycrystalline micro-mechanical model for elastoplastic deformation has been adapted and confronted to experimental results. Crystallographic texture and initial residual stresses were considered in this analysis. Critical shear stresses and hardening parameters of each phase of the studied duplex steel have been identified. Results of this study showed that the austenitic phase represents the softest and the most hardenable phase. Taking into account in calculations the initial residual stresses in the non deformed sample leads to the conclusion that the initial stresses modify considerably the values of phase's yield stresses. Good agreement has been noted comparing results obtained by XRD to those obtained by neutron diffraction. The problem of relaxation of normal stresses in the analysed layer by X-rays was analysed and discussed. Using XRD and self-consistent modelling, the effect of the chemical composition of the duplex stainless steel and the influence of ageing at 400 C degrees for 1000 h on the mechanical behaviour of austenitic and ferritic phases have

We analyzed the Suzaku archive data of a type I X-ray burst from GRS 1747-312, a low-mass X-ray binary located in the globular cluster Terzan 6. During the Galactic bulge mapping observations with Suzaku, which covered Terzan 6, an X-ray burst of long duration and with moderate photospheric-radius expansion was serendipitously detected and was considered to be most probably originating from GRS 1747-312. The time-divided burst spectra were reproduced well with an absorbed blackbody over the majority of the time, but significant deviation was detected late in the cooling phase. The deviation was due to a rolled-off feature, which gradually developed in the cooling phase of the burst, in the energy spectra above ∼7 keV. We tested various models to reproduce the spectral feature and found three types of models (reflection by cold matter, partial-covering absorption, and Doppler-smeared absorption edges due to the rapid spin of a neutron star) gave a statistically acceptable fit. We discussed the feasibility of these models, including a non-Planckian nature of the burst spectra.

Diffractive 3D phase gratings of spherical scatterers dense in hexagonal packing geometry represent adaptively tunable 4D-spatiotemporal filters with trichromatic resonance in visible spectrum. They are described in the (lambda) - chromatic and the reciprocal (nu) -aspects by reciprocal geometric translations of the lightlike Pythagoras theorem, and by the direction cosine for double cones. The most elementary resonance condition in the lightlike Pythagoras theorem is given by the transformation of the grating constants gx, gy, gz of the hexagonal 3D grating to (lambda) h1h2h3 equals (lambda) 111 with cos (alpha) equals 0.5. Through normalization of the chromaticity in the von Laue-interferences to (lambda) 111, the (nu) (lambda) equals (lambda) h1h2h3/(lambda) 111-factor of phase velocity becomes the crucial resonance factor, the 'regulating device' of the spatiotemporal interaction between 3D grating and light, space and time. In the reciprocal space equal/unequal weights and times in spectral metrics result at positions of interference maxima defined by hyperbolas and circles. A database becomes built up by optical interference for trichromatic image preprocessing, motion detection in vector space, multiple range data analysis, patchwide multiple correlations in the spatial frequency spectrum, etc.

The aim of nuclear fuel reprocessing is to separate reusable elements, uranium and plutonium from the other elements, fission products and minor actinides. PUREX process uses liquid-liquid extraction as separation method. Numerical codes for modelling the extraction operations of PUREX process use a semi-empirical model to represent the partition of species. To improve the precision and precision and predictive nature of the models, we looked for a theoretical tool which permits to quantify medium effects, especially in the organic phase, for which few models are available. The Sergeivskii-Dannus model permits to quantify deviations from ideality in organic phase equilibrated with aqueous phase, but with parameters depending on extractant/diluent ratio. We decided to investigate UNIQUAC and UNIFAC models which permit to estimate activity coefficients in non-electrolytic phases taking account of the mutual interactions of molecules and their morphology. UNIFAC is based on UNIQUAC but molecules are considered as structural groups assemblies. Before applying these model to extraction systems, we investigate their abilities to describe simple systems, binary and ternary systems. UNIQUAC has been applied to TBP/diluent mixtures and permits to estimate activity coefficients for diluents whose interactions with TPB are very different in nature and strength. Group contribution (UNIFAC) applied to TBP/alkane mixtures permits to represent the effect of lengthening alkane chain but not the effect of branching. UNIQUAC fails to describe the TBP/diluent/water/non-extractable-salt systems in case of strong TBP diluent interactions. In order to obtain a correct description of these systems, we used the Chem-UNIFAC model, where the INIFAC equation is supplemented with chemical equilibria allowing explicitly for complexes formation and where group contribution is used to describes complexes. We have with Chem-UNIFAC a model available which can take the effect of the diluent into

Along with finite differences and finite elements, spectral methods are one of the three main methodologies for solving partial differential equations on computers. This book provides a detailed presentation of basic spectral algorithms, as well as a systematical presentation of basic convergence theory and error analysis for spectral methods. Readers of this book will be exposed to a unified framework for designing and analyzing spectral algorithms for a variety of problems, including in particular high-order differential equations and problems in unbounded domains. The book contains a large

The understanding of the stability and phase relations of the main rare earth minerals (REE) is required in various fields : nuclear waste storage, datation of metamorphic events, REE geochemistry.... We propose here to address the stability of these minerals at temperatures below 500 °C where it remains poorly known. REE paragenesis have been identified in natural samples. These observations have been completed with the collection of thermodynamic parameters of lanthanum bearing minerals by ...

Infrared Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy provides sensibility, selectivity and high temporal resolution. We have applied this technique to atmospheric trace pollutants monitoring and to gas phase kinetics of elementary reactions. For metrology, we have developed a novel and effective protocol: pressure increase measurements. It has been applied to monitoring nitrous oxide, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and 1,3-butadiene, in air or car exhausts. This work represents a first step toward the elaboration of a compact and portable instrument. The kinetic setup, where reactions are initiated by laser photolysis, has been validated with the well-known reactions of formyl and hydroxymethyl radicals with oxygen. A preliminary study of the rate constant for the unimolecular decomposition of pivaloyl radical has been performed. (author)

In the frame of the research project ZIESEL the GRS enhanced the state of science and technology for the realization and evaluation of long-term safety cases for the final deposition of radioactive wastes. The superior aim was the improved understanding of two-phase flow processes in a complex final repository system. The consideration of two-phase processes in modeling of final repository systems induces processes and effects that significantly affect the transport behavior of fluid and radionuclides. Two-phase processes include not only capillary pressures and relative permeabilities but also a basic competition of phases with respect to pore volume for storage and transport and density-driven vertical separation of phases. Basically seals have been shown to be essential for the system behavior because of their influence of the gas pressure dependent control function. The system behavior is also influences by the model geometry.

We are interested in the numerical approximation of two-fluid models of nonequilibrium two-phase flows described by six balance equations. We introduce an original splitting technique of the system of equations. This technique is derived in a way such that single phase Riemann solvers may be used: moreover, it allows a straightforward extension to various and detailed exchange source terms. The properties of the fluids are first approached by state equations of ideal gas type and then extended to real fluids. For the construction of numerical schemes , the hyperbolicity of the full system is not necessary. When based on suitable kinetic unwind schemes, the algorithm can compute flow regimes evolving from mixture to single phase flows and vice versa. The whole scheme preserves the physical features of all the variables which remain in the set of physical states. Several stiff numerical tests, such as phase separation and phase transition are displayed in order to highlight the efficiency of the proposed method. The document is a PhD thesis divided in 6 chapters and two annexes. They are entitled: 1. - Introduction (in French), 2. - Two-phase flow, modelling and hyperbolicity (in French), 3. - A numerical method using upwind schemes for the resolution of two-phase flows without exchange terms (in English), 4. - A numerical scheme for one-phase flow of real fluids (in English), 5. - An upwind numerical for non-equilibrium two-phase flows (in English), 6. - The treatment of boundary conditions (in English), A.1. The Perthame scheme (in English) and A.2. The Roe scheme (in English). 136 refs. This document represents a PhD thesis in the speciality Applied Mathematics presented par Khalid El Amine to the Universite Paris 6.

This note tries to attempt a sketch of the history of spectral ranking, a general umbrella name for techniques that apply the theory of linear maps (in particular, eigenvalues and eigenvectors) to matrices that do not represent geometric transformations, but rather some kind of relationship between entities. Albeit recently made famous by the ample press coverage of Google's PageRank algorithm, spectral ranking was devised more than fifty years ago, almost exactly in the same terms, and has been studied in psychology and social sciences. I will try to describe it in precise and modern mathematical terms, highlighting along the way the contributions given by previous scholars.

Small underground nuclear explosions need to be confidently detected, identified, and characterized in regions of the world where they have never before occurred. We develop a parametric model of the nuclear explosion seismic source spectrum derived from regional phases that is compatible with earthquake-based geometrical spreading and attenuation. Earthquake spectra are fit with a generalized version of the Brune spectrum, which is a three-parameter model that describes the long-period level, corner-frequency, and spectral slope at high-frequencies. Explosion spectra can be fit with similar spectral models whose parameters are then correlated with near-source geology and containment conditions. We observe a correlation of high gas-porosity (low-strength) with increased spectral slope. The relationship between the parametric equations and the geologic and containment conditions will assist in our physical understanding of the nuclear explosion source.

This research examines the feasibility of spectral tagging, which involves modifying the spectral signature of a target, e.g. by mixing an additive with the target's paint. The target is unchanged to the human eye, but the tag is revealed when viewed with a spectrometer. This project investigates a layer of security that is not obvious, and therefore easy to conceal. The result is a tagging mechanism that is difficult to counterfeit. Uniquely tagging an item is an area of need in safeguards and security and non-proliferation. The powdered forms of the minerals lapis lazuli and olivine were selected as the initial test tags due to their availability and uniqueness in the visible to near-infrared spectral region. They were mixed with paints and applied to steel. In order to verify the presence of the tags quantitatively, the data from the spectrometer was input into unmixing models and signal detection algorithms. The mixture with the best results was blue paint mixed with lapis lazuli and olivine. The tag had a 0% probability of false alarm and a 100% probability of detection. The research proved that spectral tagging is feasible, although certain tag/paint mixtures are more detectable than others.

The INPHO project aims at upgrading and optimizing the SAPHIR installation that is dedicated to the measurement (through the detection of photofission reactions) of radioactive wastes containing transuranium elements. Some modifications have been made during the phase I of the upgrading: -) the supply of power between the 2 parts of the accelerator has been modified. Now the setting of the beam energy does not imply to compensate for a phase shift; -) the vacuum level of the accelerator has been improved, it passed from 10{sup -6} torr to 7.10{sup -8} torr); and current measurers have been set on the electron line (there were no direct diagnostics previously). Other modifications are planned for the phase II of the upgrading. It concerns: -) the power supply of the electron gun; -) the control system; and the power supply of the klystron. In parallel with the phase II, feasibility studies have been led for the design of an electron line that will allow the electron-photon converter target to be as near as possible to the waste package to probe. (A.C.)

Many scientific, imaging, and geospatial applications produce large high-precision scalar fields sampled on a regular grid. Lossless compression of such data is commonly done using predictive coding, in which weighted combinations of previously coded samples known to both encoder and decoder are used to predict subsequent nearby samples. In hierarchical, incremental, or selective transmission, the spatial pattern of the known neighbors is often irregular and varies from one sample to the next, which precludes prediction based on a single stencil and fixed set of weights. To handle such situations and make the best use of available neighboring samples, we propose a local spectral predictor that offers optimal prediction by tailoring the weights to each configuration of known nearby samples. These weights may be precomputed and stored in a small lookup table. We show that predictive coding using our spectral predictor improves compression for various sources of high-precision data.

We present a nonrelativistic theory for the quantum mechanical description of longitudinal atomic beam spin echo experiments, where a beam of neutral atoms is subjected to static electric and magnetic fields. The atomic wave function is the solution of a matrix-valued Schroedinger equation and can be written as superposition of local (atomic) eigenstates of the potential matrix. The position- and time-dependent amplitude function of each eigenstate represents an atomic wave packet and can be calculated in a series expansion with a master formula that we derive. The zeroth order of this series expansion describes the adiabatic limit, whereas the higher order contributions contain the mixing of the eigenstates and the corresponding amplitude functions. We give a tutorial for the theoretical description of longitudinal atomic beam spin echo experiments and for the so-called Fahrplan model, which is a visualisation tool for the propagation of wave packets of different atomic eigenstates. As an example for the application of our theory, we study parity violating geometric (Berry-)phases. In this context, we define geometric flux densities, which for certain field configurations can be used to illustrate geometric phases in a vector diagram. Considering an example with a specific field configuration, we prove the existence of a parity violating geometric phase. (orig.)

The following study deals with the theoretical investigation of heat transfer in a latent heat store. The object of the investigation is a heat exchanger element with a circumferentially finned tube, in which the space between the fins is filled with storage material. An analytical method, employing Green's function, was developed for this arrangement in order to solve the two dimensional (r,z-coordinates) transient heat conduction in inhomogenous materials with simultaneous phase change. When compared with other well-known analytical methods, the most important advantages are that the Fourier heat conduction equation and the boundary conditions at the phase front are simultaneously fulfilled by the final solution, as well as the fact that the initial temperature is independent of a given phase change temperature. A fundamental advantage can also be seen in the very small number of time steps for calculating the transient charging/discharging processes and hence shorter calculation times. Two special extreme cases were designed where the results agree well with literature data. In comparison with the numerically calculated melting and solidification behaviour only small variations were observed.

This work aims at a better understanding of the dynamics of helium two-phase flow in a vertical duct. The case of bubble flow is particularly investigated. The most descriptive parameter of two-phase flow is the void fraction. A sensor to measure this parameter was specially designed and calibrated, it is made of a radioactive source and a semiconductor detector. Sensors based on light attenuation were used to study the behaviour of this two-phase flow. The experimental set-up is described. The different flow types were photographed and video filmed. This visualization has allowed to measure the diameter of bubbles and to study their movements in the fluid. Bubble flow then churn and annular flows were observed but slug flow seems not to exist with helium. A modelling based on a Zuber model matches better the experimental results than a Levy type model. The detailed analysis of the signals given by the optical sensors has allowed to highlight a bubble appearance frequency directly linked to the flowrate. (A.C.) 83 refs.

This conference day was organized by the `radiations` section of the French association of thermal engineers. This book of proceedings contains 8 papers entitled: `simultaneous temperature and NO concentration measurements in a hydrogen-air turbulent flame`; `application of iodine laser induced fluorescence to temperature, pressure and velocity measurements`; `Doppler phase measurement of refractive index and temperature`; `experimental and numerical study of temperature fields of particulates in plasma jets`; `measurement and determination of temperatures and concentrations of hot exhaust gases with FTIR emission spectroscopy`; `combustion control in gas turbines using CO{sub 2} emission spectroscopy`; `analysis of gases temperature fields and particulate jets. Application to hydrogen-air, kerosene stato-reactors and to solid propellant jets`; `restitution of temperature and species profiles in pre-mixing flames by inversion of transmission and IR emission data. (J.S.)

This final report for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) describes the development of a test procedure for the determination of losses caused by the switching on and off of heat pumps. The first part of the work described concerns the validation of an algorithm developed in an earlier phase of the project using experimental methods. Tests performed in a twin climatic chamber on a 10 kW heat pump are described. The resulting equations for the temperature and time-dependent functions used in determining the performance-reduction for the heat pump caused by on-off cycling are described. The second part of the work is also described that involved the development of procedures for determining the constants for the adaptation of the equations to the testing procedures. Details are given on the appropriate test procedures to be used at the Swiss heat pump testing centre at Toess.

Full Text Available Whereas graduated students are usually familiar with Fourier spectra, the spectralphase remains often mysterious to them. This paper proposes a “hands on.approach of discrete Fourier transform (DFT and spectralphase. In a first part, basics of DFT are explored through elementary simulations. The variation of digital parameters allows the identification of sampled frequencies las well as their relation with the size of the sampled window. The significance of the spectrum phase is also illustrated experimentally to demonstrate the useful relationship between a displacement and the spectralphase. In a second part, these properties are put in application for the characterization of tuning-fork resonance by means of video-rate analysis of the spectralphase. Experimental hardware is reduced to elementary devices and remains affordable while involving all aspects of a measurement chain. The proposed progression constitutes a practical approach to discrete Fourier transform and spectralphase properties. At the end, the resonance curve of a tuning-fork is recorded in only a few minutes. The Shannon sampling theorem as well as the uncertainty relation linking the resolutions achieved in the direct and reciprocal domains, are also considered practically throughout this work. Keywords: Fast Fourier Transform, Fourier Phase, tuning fork.// RESUMEN Mientras que los estudiantes graduados están familiarizados con el espectro de Fourier, la fase espectral a menudo se mantiene misteriosa. Este artículo propone una aproximación practica a la Transformada de Fourier Discreta (TFD y a la fase espectral. En una primera parte, se exploran las bases de TFD mediante simulaciones elementales. La variación de parámetros digitales permite la identificación de frecuencias de muestreo y su relación con el tamaño de la ventana muestreada. La importancia del espectro de fase también se ilustra experimentalmente para demostrar la utilidad de la relaci

For two-phase flow in heterogeneous media, the emergence of different flow regimes at large-scale is driven by local interactions between the viscous coupling and the heterogeneity. In particular, when the viscosity ratio is favorable, viscous effects induce a transverse flow that stabilizes the front while flooding. However, most of recent stochastic models neglect the influence of the viscous coupling. We developed a stochastic model for the dynamics of the front, taking the viscous coupling into account. For stable cases, this model relates the statistical properties of the front to the statistical properties of the permeability field. For stable flow in stratified media, we show that the front is stationary by parts in the reservoir. These parts can be identified as large-scale hydrodynamic layers and separately coarsened in the large-scale simulation model. For flows with favorable viscosity ratios in isotropic reservoirs, we show that a stationary front occurs, in a statistical sense. For unfavorable viscosity ratios, the flow is driven by the development of viscous fingering. These different regimes lead to different large-scale saturation profiles that can be matched with a macro-dispersion equation, if the effective convective flux is modified to take into account stabilizing or destabilizing viscous effects. (author)

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a 40 Gb/s secure optical communication system with on-off-keying (OOK) modulation format by using a time domain spectralphase en/decoding scheme, which employs a highly dispersive element and high-speed phase modulator for introducing significant symbol overlapping for both the encoded and incorrectly decoded noiselike signals to enhance the information security against eavesdropping using a power detector. The influence of dispersion and chip modulation rate on the symbol overlapping of the incorrectly decoded signal has been analytically investigated and experimentally verified. Security enhancement for 40 Gb/s OOK data using fast reconfigurable 40 Gchip/s optical codes with code lengths of up to 1024 has been demonstrated and compared with a 10 Gb/s system.

Two CERN ladies are getting ready for the “Trophée Roses des Sables” rally adventure: Julie and Laetitia are finalizing the last details before setting off on Monday 7th October 2013. Julie from EN-MEF group and Laetitia from DGS-SEE group, met at the CERN Rugby club. This year, they are participating in the 100 % female rally which will take place in Morocco from 10 to 20 October. They will be carrying along 100 kg of humanitarian donation for children such as some clothes, books and medical material. Do not hesitate to show your support at their farewell party to be held on Monday 7 October, from 4 to 6 pm in front of the St Genis-Pouilly Mairie (city Hall). Follow their exciting adventure on the blog leslueursdessables.trophee-roses-des-sables.org and on their association’s Facebook page Les Lueurs des Sables.

The use of a low emissions turbogenerator guarantees the range of a hybrid electrical vehicle in respect of the gas components maximum values set by the legislation, without any exhaust gas post-treatment. That is why the combustion chamber is designed for a lean premixed pre-vaporized combustion to ensure low emissions at steady operating. Nevertheless, during the cold starting phase, a gas-oil spray combustion is used to warm up the gas turbine and then smoke is observed in the exhaust gas. Spray ignition and combustion phenomena are greatly determined by the two phase properties (equivalence ratio, velocity, turbulence level) and spray characteristics, as we show with bench tests. The droplet history and the liquid-gas interaction is studied in both non-reacting and reacting situation with the computational fluid dynamic software Fluent. A series of stationary states represents the transient starting phase. The major role played by the droplet size and the injection timing is then clearly showed. For the multiphase turbulent combustion model, we develop a semi-detailed chemical mechanism. It is used to specify the spray characteristics which reduce the unburnt hydrocarbons and helps to determine the turbo-alternator cartography during the starting phase. (author)

Temperature-dependent change in core-level electronic structures of the layered semiconductor-ferroelectric TlInS{sub 2} with incommensurate phase has been investigated by means of X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of the relative peak position for each core level (Tl 4f, In 3d and S 2p) is found to differ very much in the regions bordering each other at the normal-incommensurate phase transition point of 218 K. The obtained data suggest that the charge distribution in TlInS{sub 2} dramatically changes upon passing from the normal phase (T > 218 K) to the spatially modulated incommensurate phase (T < 218 K)

The CAST (CERN Solar Axion Telescope) experiment is searching for solar axions by their conversion into photons inside a transverse magnetic field. So far, no solar axionsignal has been detected, but a new upper limit could be given (CAST Phase I). Since 2005, CAST entered in its second phase where it operates with a buffer gas ({sup 4}He) in the conversion region to extend the sensitivity of the experiment to higher axionmasses. For the first time it is possible to enter the theoretically favored axion massrange and to give an upper limit for this solar axion mass-range (>0.02 eV). This thesis is about the analysis of the X-ray telescope data Phase II with {sup 4}He inside the magnet. The result for the coupling constant of axions to photons is: g{sub {alpha}}{sub {gamma}}{sub {gamma}}<1.6-6.0 x 10{sup -10} GeV{sup -1} (95%C.L.) for m{sub a}=0.02-0.4 eV. (2) This result is better than any result that has been given before in this mass range for solar axions. (orig.)

In order to predict the phase transformation kinetics and the amount of alpha phase of the different morphologies, it is thus necessary to model each transformation mechanism. The developed model describing transformation kinetics by nucleation and growth laws for a multi-component titanium alloy. A new description of alpha phase compound (stoichiometric compound) in the existing titanium data base in the software Thermo-Calc allows to obtain a good correlation between experimental and calculated results. In order to study the growth of alpha spheroids after solubilization in the alpha+beta range we have shown that it is necessary to consider a numerical approach to obtain a good prediction of the transformation kinetics. The transformation kinetics after solubilization in the beta range is obtained by combining the models of nucleation and growth of the different morphologies. A geometrical structure was assumed, close to the real grain one. This allows to estimate some microstructural parameters that can be compared to the experimental observations. Experimental and calculated IT (and CGT) diagrams appear to be very close. (author)

The INDRA multidetector allowed us to study the Ni+Ni collisions at 32A MeV and the Ni+Au collisions at 52,4 MeV. Central collisions leading to 'quasi-fused' systems were isolated using multidimensional analysis techniques: the Discriminant Analysis and the Principal Component Analysis. Comparison with a statistical model shows that the selected events are compatible with thermodynamical equilibrium. The average thermal excitation energy is 5A MeV for both systems. Calculations of heat capacities show that the deexcitation of the hot sources are akin to a liquid-gas phase transition of nuclear matter. Indeed heat capacities exhibit a negative branch as expected for a phase transition of a finite system. The dynamics of this phase transition has been investigated by applying the charge correlation method. An enhanced production of events with equal-sized fragments has been evidenced for Ni+Au at 52A MeV. No signal was found for Ni+Ni at 32A MeV. Finally this method was improved by taking into account the total charge conservation. The signal is seen more clearly for Ni+Au at 52A MeV, but is ambiguous for Ni+Ni at 32A MeV. The path followed in the state diagram, or the involved time scales, seem to be different for these systems. (authors)

One on the main difficulties encountered in the direct numerical simulation of two-phase flows in general and of liquid-vapor flows with phase-change in particular, is the interface tracking. The idea developed in this work consists in modeling a liquid-vapor interface as a volumetric zone across which physical properties vary continuously instead of a discontinuous surface. The second gradient theory allows to establish the evolution equations of the fluid in the whole system: bulk phases and interfaces. That means that the resolution of a unique system of partial differential equations is necessary to determine the whole two-phase flow, the interfaces and their evolution in time being a part of the solution of this unique system. We show in this work that it is possible to artificially enlarge an interface without changing its surface tension and the latent heat of vaporization. That means than it is possible to track all the interfaces of a liquid-vapor two-phase flow with phase-change on a mesh the size of which is imposed by the smallest Kolmogorov scale of the bulk phases for example. The artificial enlargement of an interfacial zone is obtained by modifying the thermodynamic behavior of the fluid within the binodal. We show that this modification does not change the dynamics of an interface. However, although the thickness of an interface and its surface tension vary with the mass and heat fluxes that go though it, the thermodynamic modification necessary to the artificial enlargement of an interface drastically increases these variations. Consequently, the artificial enlargement of an interface must be made carefully to avoid a too much important variation of its surface tension during dynamic situations. (author) 60 refs.

The annual gala dinner of Chaine des Rotisseurs was hosted by Hilton Beijing. The “Ballet Dinner” - a great creation for both art and fine dining lovers was taken place in varies places within the hotel, including hotel lobby, 3rd floor and lobby lounge.

Spectral image acquisition as well as color image is affected by several illumination factors such as shading, gloss, and specular highlight. Spectral invariant representations for these factors were proposed for the standard dichromatic reflection model of inhomogeneous dielectric materials. However, these representations are inadequate for other characteristic materials like metal. This paper proposes a more general spectral invariant representation for obtaining reliable spectral reflectance images. Our invariant representation is derived from the standard dichromatic reflection model for dielectric materials and the extended dichromatic reflection model for metals. We proof that the invariant formulas for spectral images of natural objects preserve spectral information and are invariant to highlights, shading, surface geometry, and illumination intensity. It is proved that the conventional spectral invariant technique can be applied to metals in addition to dielectric objects. Experimental results show that the proposed spectral invariant representation is effective for image segmentation.

ALMA is revolutionising our scope to identify and locate molecules that have been desorbed from ices, particularly complex organic molecules (COMS), which provide a vital link between interstellar and prebiotic chemistry. Explaining the existence of these molecules in star-forming regions relies on an empirical understanding of the chemistry that underpins their formation:- do COMS form predominantly in the solid-phase and then desorb to the gas phase, or do only “smaller” species, radials or ions desorb and then undergo gas-phase chemical reactions to generate larger COMS?-are the rotational state populations in COMS only attributable to equilibrium chemistry, or could their formation mechanisms and desorption processes affect the rotational state occupancy of these molecules, thereby directly tying certain species to solid-state origins?We have developed a novel laboratory method - THz Desorption Emission Spectroscopy (THz-DES) that combines “traditional” laboratory astrophysics high-vacuum ice experiments with a sensitive high-spectral-resolution terahertz total-power heterodyne radiometer 1,2, partially mirroring the spectral range of ALMA band 7 (275- 373 GHz). Ices are grown in situ on a cold-plate, situated in a vacuum cell, then (thermally) desorbed. The sub-mm emission spectra of the resultant gas-phase molecules are detected as a function of time, temperature, or distance from the surface. Our first THz DES results will be shown for pure and binary ice systems including H2O, N2O and CH3OH. They show good correlation with established methods e.g. TPD, with the advantage of exploiting the molecular spectroscopy to unravel surface dynamics, state-occupancy, and unequivocal molecular identification, as well as concurrently measuring desorption barriers and molecular yields. We will extend our technique to a broader frequency range, enabling us to detect radical and ion desorption, to differentiate between A and E populations of CH3OH or ortho

In this paper, spectral estimation of NMR relaxation is constructed as an extension of Fourier Transform (FT) theory as it is practiced in NMR or MRI, where multidimensional FT theory is used. nD NMR strives to separate overlapping resonances, so the treatment given here deals primarily with monoexponential decay. In the domain of real error, it is shown how optimal estimation based on prior knowledge can be derived. Assuming small Gaussian error, the estimation variance and bias are derived. Minimum bias and minimum variance are shown to be contradictory experimental design objectives. The analytical continuation of spectral estimation is constructed in an optimal manner. An important property of spectral estimation is that it is phase invariant. Hence, hypercomplex data storage is unnecessary. It is shown that, under reasonable assumptions, spectral estimation is unbiased in the context of complex error and its variance is reduced because the modulus of the whole signal is used. Because of phase invariance, the labor of phasing and any error due to imperfect phase can be avoided. A comparison of spectral estimation with nonlinear least squares (NLS) estimation is made analytically and with numerical examples. Compared to conventional sampling for NLS estimation, spectral estimation would typically provide estimation values of comparable precision in one-quarter to one-tenth of the spectrometer time when S/N is high. When S/N is low, the time saved can be used for signal averaging at the sampled points to give better precision. NLS typically provides one estimate at a time, whereas spectral estimation is inherently parallel. The frequency dimensions of conventional nD FT NMR may be denoted D1, D2, etc. As an extension of nD FT NMR, one can view spectral estimation of NMR relaxation as an extension into the zeroth dimension. In nD NMR, the information content of a spectrum can be extracted as a set of n-tuples (ω1, … ωn), corresponding to the peak maxima

Oxidic precursors of hydro-treatment catalysts (Co)Mo/alumina or zeolite were characterised by Raman spectroscopy, NMR and EXAFS at the Mo and Co K-edges. The formation of an Anderson-type alumino-molybdate compound upon impregnation of the support with an ammonium hepta-molybdate solution was confirmed for alumina, and also observed for the HY zeolitic support, with consumption of the amorphous alumina of the zeolite. In absence of the latter, ammonium hepta-molybdate precipitates. The species are conserved upon drying; upon calcination, the alumino-molybdate evolves into a surface aluminium molybdate type phase, whereas the hepta-molybdate transforms into MoO{sub 3}. The species formed upon impregnation are located in the inter-granular porosity whereas MoO{sub 3} vapor-condensation leads to formation of dimers located inside the zeolitic structure. The study of the cobalt-promoted precursors showed that the evolution of the molybdenum is the same in the case of co-impregnation preparation. Impregnation with cobalt-molybdate prevents the formation of the alumino-molybdate anion and thus enables the preservation of the Mo-Co interaction but, whatever the precursor, the leveling effect of the calcination-re-hydration steps was demonstrated. An EXAFS study at different sulfur coverages of the MoS{sub 2} platelets in the alumina-supported sulfided catalysts showed the limitations of EXAFS for size determination of MoS{sub 2} crystallites, a parameter that can be reached by AWAXS, which also conveys information about sheet-stacking. The EXAFS study of sulfided (Co)Mo/HY systems revealed incomplete sulfidation of the samples and the very high dispersion of the active phase. The absence of an observable Mo-Co interaction whatever the preparation of the promoted catalysts is consistent with the absence of promoting effect in toluene hydrogenation. (author)

This work is a contribution to the study of new graphite/salt composites dedicated to high temperature energy storage ({>=}200 C). The aim is to analyse and to understand the influence of both graphite and composite microstructure on the phase change properties of salts. This PhD is carried out within the framework of two projects: DISTOR (European) and HTPSTOCK (French). The major contributions of this work are threefold: 1) An important database (solid-liquid phase change properties) is provided from the DSC analysis of six salts and the corresponding composites. 2) Rigorous modeling of salts melting in confined media in several geometries are proposed to understand why, during the first melting of the compression elaborated composites, problems of salt leakage are observed. These models show that the materials morphology is responsible for these phenomena: the graphite matrix restrains the volume expansion due to salt melting: salt melts under pressure, which leads to a melting on a large temperature range and to a loss of energy density. Sensitivity analysis of parameters (geometric and physic) shows that matrix rigidity modulus is the parameter on which it is necessary to act during the composites elaboration to blur this phenomenon. 3) Finally, this work proposes a thermodynamic formulation of both surface/interface phenomena and the presence of dissolved impurities being able to explain a melting point lowering. It seems that the melting point lowering observed ({approx} 5 C) are mainly due to the presence of dissolved impurities (brought by graphite) in the liquid, along with an additional Gibbs-Thomson effect ({approx} 1 C, related to the size of the clusters crystals). (author)

Using SAXS, conductivity and phase behaviour determination we show that concentrated solutions of extractants are organised in reverse oligomeric aggregates which have many features in common with reverse micelles. The aggregation numbers of these reverse globular aggregates as well as their interaction potential are determined experimentally. The sticky sphere interaction is responsible for the de-mixing on the oil phase when in equilibrium with excess oil. Prediction of conductivity as well as formation condition for the third phase is possible using standard liquid theory applied to the reverse micelles. The attractive interaction, modeled with the sticky sphere model proposed by Baxter, is the balance of steric stabilisation introduced by the hydrophobic tails of the extracting molecule and the Van der Waals forces between the highly polarizable water core of the reverse molecule concentration, number of carbon atoms of aliphatic solvents, as well as proton and Neodymium cation concentration. It is shown that van der Waals interactions with a Hamaker constant of 2.5 kT explains the behaviour of DMDBTDMA in dodecane. (author) 184 refs.

The separation of p-xylene from C{sub 8} aromatics is performed industrially by selective adsorption on zeolitic molecular sieves. The aim of this work is to study and model adsorption equilibria of C{sub 8} and C{sub 10} aromatics on X and Y zeolites. The experimental data are obtained by an entirely automated equipment allowing to work in a large range of temperature (50 deg. C - 250 deg. C). With this equipment, we can follow the evolution of the composition of the liquid phase and determine the composition of the adsorbed phase at equilibrium by a mass balance calculation and with an inert component. Two analytical techniques are used to determine the composition of the liquid phase: (1) a classical method using a gas chromatograph (GC) allowed to measure selectivities in the concentration range (3%-97%) in a component; (2) an original method based on the use and on the measure of {sup 13}C labelled xylenes was developed to investigate the ranges of strongly contrasting concentrations [0-3%] and [97%-100%] in a component, which are representative of high purity domains. Lastly, three thermodynamic models are used to describe the adsorption equilibria: the Langmuir-Freundlich model, the quasi-chemical model and the statistical model. The last model is the more interesting, because it is based on physical considerations. A new statistical model has been developed with taking into account some observations coming from adsorption phenomenon in zeolites. (author)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Spectral Decomposition Algorithm (SDA) is an unsupervised feature extraction technique similar to PCA that was developed to better distinguish spectral features in...

detecting and monitoring gas leaks through intermediate cap rock strata. This system will largely comprise conventional industrial gas sensors which are available off the shelf. The direct measurement of gas flows emanating from the ground is one of the most effective ways to monitor a storage site. The INERIS accumulation chamber method has been improved to measure low and very low CO2 flux rates. It can now be used to measure a wide range of CO2 flux rates, from very low emission levels of 0.05 to 0.2 cm3.min−1.m−2 up to extremely high flux rates of some 3000 cm3.min−1.m−2. The accuracy and operational characteristics of chamber method have been checked and validated by tests performed in a laboratory and on a test rig, as well as through field measurements taken under real conditions at sites that naturally release CO2. These tests have shown that the method has reached full technical maturity and that it can be applied on a practical level to detect and monitor CO2 and methane emissions on the ground’s surface. The two methods which have been tested are now operational and ready for integration into the surveillance strategy applied at future CO2 storage sites. They can be used at every stage of a storage site’s life: site reconnaissance, definition of the initial state, injection, post-injection phase, and residual monitoring after the site has been abandoned. Les développements et les résultats présentés sont issus des travaux réalisés dans le cadre du programme Géocarbone-Monitoring cofinancé par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR. Une partie importante de ce programme a porté sur des méthodes de suivi géochimique en phase gazeuse à la surface et dans la couverture intermédiaire des sites de stockage géologique du CO2. Le travail effectué par l’INERIS a été ciblé sur deux approches particulières, souvent préconisées comme incontournables dans la surveillance des futurs sites de stockage : une détection précoce (pr

The aim of this work is to study the aqueous corrosion of the thorium phosphate-diphosphate (TPD), of the formula Th{sub 4}(PO{sub 4}){sub 4}P{sub 2}O{sub 7}, in the framework of the actinides immobilization. In order to complete the anterior studies concerning solid solutions where thorium is substituted by a tetravalent ion (uranium (IV) or plutonium (IV)) in the TPD structure, compounds of thorium and neptunium phosphate-diphosphate, of formula Th{sub 4-x}Np{sub x}(PO{sub 4}){sub 4}P{sub 2}O{sub 7}, have been prepared. Furthermore, a new chemical way of synthesis has been investigated in order to sinter solids solution of thorium and uranium phosphate-diphosphate (TUPD) in good conditions. The TPD dissolution study showed two principals steps. The first one corresponds to the control of element concentration by the material dissolution whereas the second corresponds to the formation of secondary precipitates for which thermodynamic equilibrium controls the concentration of the species in solution. Leaching tests have been performed varying several independent parameters in order to determine the TPD dissolution rate. The partial orders related to the protons or to the hydroxide ions have been found between 0.35 and 0.45 whereas the apparent dissolution rate constants are in the range 1.10{sup -5} for 9.10{sup -5} g.m{sup -2}.j{sup -1} for acidic and basic media. The neo-formed phases have been characterized after the dissolution of TPD and TUPD. We found that the TPD leaching in acidic medium leads to the formation of the crystallized thorium phosphate-hydrogen-phosphate (TPHP), of formula Th{sub 2}(PO{sub 4}){sub 2}(HPO{sub 4}), x H{sub 2}O, whereas the TUPD dissolution leads to the TPHP and an other compound, of formula (UO{sub 2}){sub 3}(PO{sub 4}){sub 2}, 5 H{sub 2}O. We calculated its solubility product which is in good agreement with those found in the literature. The phases formed during the leaching of solids containing plutonium; americium or curium (Th

弹道目标检测与识别问题是天基红外预警系统的核心难题之一。针对主动段弹道目标的检测和识别问题，分析了传统的基于空间和时间特征信息的弹道目标检测与识别方法。利用目标辐射空间与光谱的一致性，提出一种基于成像光谱技术的主动段弹道目标检测与识别方法，将空域目标检测和谱域目标识别两个环节进行联合处理。实验证明，该方法应用于复杂背景下低信噪比的红外弱小目标图像序列能得到较理想的结果，算法检测概率高、虚警概率低、具有较强的实时性。%Ballistic target detection and recognition is one of the core difficult problems of Space -Based Infrared System (SBIRS).Aiming at the problem of detection and recognition of boost-phase ballistic target,the traditional methods based on spatial and temporal characteristic information were analyzed,and the disadvantages of the methods were pointed out .According to the consistency of the target radiation in spatial dimension and spectral dimension,an integrated method for ballistic target detection and recognition was put forward based on imaging spectral technology,in which integrated treatment was made for target detection and recognition in spectral domain spectral domain .Experiment results show that this method can obtain good result toward low SNR infrared image sequence under complex background,the algorithm has high detection probability,low false-alarm probability and fine real-time performance .

This work deals with the behaviour under irradiation of a glass-ceramic made after heat treatment of a molybdenum rich R7/T7 type glass. Rare earth elements (Eu{sup 3+} and Nd{sup 3+}) are used as surrogates of minor actinides and fission products as well as structural luminescent probes. We will focus on the behaviour of the crystalline phase which is a powellite type calcium molybdate that incorporated other elements including rare earth elements. In order to determine the crystalline-chemical properties of the powellite structure, Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence analyses are led on natural powellite samples and synthetic ceramics with compositions from pure CaMoO{sub 4} to Ca{sub 0.76}Sr{sub 0.1}Na{sub 0.07}Eu{sub 0.01}La{sub 0.02}Nd{sub 0.02}Pr{sub 0.02}MoO{sub 4}, a model composition of the crystalline phase of the glass-ceramic. The analyses of synthetic samples irradiated with He, Ar and Pb ions compared to the behaviour of a natural powellite sample that contains uranium indicate that powellite resist strongly to irradiation and never reach the amorphous state. (author)

This thesis describes the modelization and the simulation of two-phase systems composed of droplets moving in a gas. The two phases interact with each other and the type of model to consider directly depends on the type of simulations targeted. In the first part, the two phases are considered as fluid and are described using a mixture model with a drift relation (to be able to follow the relative velocity between the two phases and take into account two velocities), the two-phase flows are assumed at the equilibrium in temperature and pressure. This part of the manuscript consists of the derivation of the equations, writing a numerical scheme associated with this set of equations, a study of this scheme and simulations. A mathematical study of this model (hyperbolicity in a simplified framework, linear stability analysis of the system around a steady state) was conducted in a frame where the gas is assumed baro-tropic. The second part is devoted to the modelization of the effect of inelastic collisions on the particles when the time of the simulation is shorter and the droplets can no longer be seen as a fluid. We introduce a model of inelastic collisions for droplets in a spray, leading to a specific Boltzmann kernel. Then, we build caricatures of this kernel of BGK type, in which the behavior of the first moments of the solution of the Boltzmann equation (that is mass, momentum, directional temperatures, variance of the internal energy) are mimicked. The quality of these caricatures is tested numerically at the end. (author) [French] Cette these decrit la modelisation et la simulation de systemes a deux phases composees de particules evoluant dans un gaz. Les deux phases interagissent entre elles et le type de modele a considerer depend directement du type de simulations envisagees. Dans une premiere partie, les deux phases sont considerees comme des fluides, elles sont decrites a l'aide d'un modele de melange avec une relation de derive (permettant de

High performance phase locked loops (PLLs) are critical for power control in grid-connected systems. This paper presents a new method of designing a PLL for single-phase systems based on derivative elements (DEs). The quadrature signal generator (QSG) is constructed by two DEs with the same main ...

Highlights: • Colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent cancer and the status of the regional lymph nodes in rectal cancer is considered to be one of the most powerful prognostic factor in the absence of distant metastatic disease. Detecting LNs metastasis is still a challenging problem due to the presence of microscopic metastasis or inflammatory swelling of LNs. • We investigated the value of dual energy spectral CT in differentiating metastatic from non-metastatic lymph nodes in rectal cancer. Our study demonstrated that the quantitative normalized iodine concentration (nIC) could be useful for differentiating metastatic and non-metastatic lymph nodes. The combination of nIC in portal venous phase and conventional size criterion could improve the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of rectal cancer. - Abstract: Objectives: To investigate the value of dual energy spectral CT (DEsCT) imaging in differentiating metastatic from non-metastatic lymph nodes in rectal cancer. Methods: Fifty-five patients with rectal cancer underwent the arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PP) contrast-enhanced DEsCT imaging. The virtual monochromatic images and iodine-based material decomposition images derived from DEsCT imaging were interpreted for lymph nodes (LNs) measurement. The short axis diameter and the normalized iodine concentration (nIC) of metastatic and non-metastatic LNs were measured. The two-sample t test was used to compare the short axis diameters and nIC values of metastatic and non-metastatic LNs. ROC analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic performance. Results: One hundred and fifty two LNs including 92 non-metastatic LNs and 60 metastatic LNs were matched using the radiological-pathological correlation. The mean short axis diameter of metastatic LNs was significantly larger than that of the non-metastatic LNs (7.28 ± 2.28 mm vs. 4.90 ± 1.64 mm, P < 0.001). The mean n

We have developed a correlative signal processing concept based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and spatial-spectral (S2) materials that enables direct mapping of RF spectralphase as well as power spectral recording. This configuration can be used for precise frequency resolved time delay estimation between signals received by a phased antenna array system that in turn could be utilized to estimate the angle of arrival. We present an analytical theoretical model and a proof-of-principle demonstration of the concept of time difference of arrival estimation with a cryogenically cooled Tm:YAG crystal that operates on microwave signals modulated onto a stabilized optical carrier at 793 nm.

Quantum symmetries of spectral lattices are studied. Basic properties of spectral order on A W ∗-algebras are summarized. Connection between projection and spectral automorphisms is clarified by showing that, under mild conditions, any spectral automorphism is a composition of function calculus and Jordan ∗-automorphism. Complete description of quantum spectral symmetries on Type I and Type II A W ∗-factors are completely described.

This paper summarizes practical experiences from the application of a wide area monitoring system applied in a real network environment. A reduced scale model (3x400 V, 5 A) representing a subsystem of the Swiss transmission grid has been chosen for the study . Four phasor measurement units (6 channels per unit: 3 voltages and 3 currents) and two 'FACTS' (flexible alternative current transfer system) have been implemented in the analogue simulator. One FACTS consisted in a phase shifting transformer, the other one in a unified power flow controller (UPFC). Methodologies for wide area control and monitoring have been demonstrated like the calculation of the electrical parameters of a high voltage line (first case: for a line in the simulator; second case: for a real 400 kV line based on measurements on site) or the control of power flows in a congested corridor. All the measurements were verified with a theoretical model. The utilization of a reduced scale model is a tool, which permits a fast verification of critical configurations or algorithms. It is also a very good platform to launch additional concepts like status estimation, stability control or power oscillation detection. (author)

Despite the advances made in areas such as DNA profiling, fingerprints are still considered to be the best form of personal iden-tification for criminal investigation purposes. A variety of physical chemical and optical techniques are available for the enhancement and detection of latent fingerprints. However, existing frequently-used fingerprint detection methods show some disadvantages such as harm to fingerprints, slow extraction, potential side effects, leaving trails, high contrast demand and so on. A new method based on phase sensitive spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for latent fingerprints detection is proposed. This method has advantages of non-contact non-destructive, high-speed and high-sensitivity. The experimentel results demonstrate that using this method to deal with fingerprints of low contrast also leads to satisfactory results, proving that the sensitivity of SD-OCT can be used for accurate and reliable patent fingerprint recognition.% 本文提出一种基于相位敏感谱域光学相干层析术(spectral domain optical coherence tomography, SD-OCT)的遗留指纹获取方法,该方法具有非接触、无损、快速和高灵敏度优势。实验结果显示,即使在低对比度条件下,本方法也能较好地再现遗留指纹,证明相位敏感谱域光学相干层析术可以准确、可靠地识别潜指纹。

At the 1974 International Congress, I. M. Singer proposed that eta invariants and hence spectral flow should be thought of as the integral of a one form. In the intervening years this idea has lead to many interesting developments in the study of both eta invariants and spectral flow. Using ideas of [24] Singer’s proposal was brought to an advanced level in [16] where a very general formula for spectral flow as the integral of a one form was produced in the framework of noncommutative geometry. This formula can be used for computing spectral flow in a general semifinite von Neumann algebra as described and reviewed in [5]. In the present paper we take the analytic approach to spectral flow much further by giving a large family of formulae for spectral flow between a pair of unbounded self-adjoint operators D and D + V with D having compact resolvent belonging to a general semifinite von Neumann algebra {mathcal{N}} and the perturbation V in {mathcal{N}} . In noncommutative geometry terms we remove summability hypotheses. This level of generality is made possible by introducing a new idea from [3]. There it was observed that M. G. Krein’s spectral shift function (in certain restricted cases with V trace class) computes spectral flow. The present paper extends Krein’s theory to the setting of semifinite spectral triples where D has compact resolvent belonging to {mathcal{N}} and V is any bounded self-adjoint operator in {mathcal{N}} . We give a definition of the spectral shift function under these hypotheses and show that it computes spectral flow. This is made possible by the understanding discovered in the present paper of the interplay between spectral shift function theory and the analytic theory of spectral flow. It is this interplay that enables us to take Singer’s idea much further to create a large class of one forms whose integrals calculate spectral flow. These advances depend critically on a new approach to the calculus of functions of non

In this paper, the problem of providing a complete parametrization of the minimal spectral factors of a discrete-time rational spectral density is considered. The desired parametrization is given in terms of the all-pass divisors of an all-pass function, related to the so-called phase function, under very mild assumptions on the given spectral density. This result provides a partial answer to a conjecture raised in [3].

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — This brochure is for the Marais des Cygnes Wildlife Area, managed by Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and located in the floodplain of the Marais...

We demonstrate tunable spectral enhancement of the supercontinuum generated in a microstructured fiber with a fiber long-period grating. The long-period grating leads to phase distortion and loss that, with subsequent high-intensity propagation in uniform fiber, evolves into an enhancement around the grating's resonant wavelengths. Wavelength tunability is achieved by varying the temperature or the ambient refractive index, and the spectral peak can be extinguished by immersing the grating in index-matching oil.

SummaryHydrological time series comprise the influences of numerous processes involved in the transfer of water in hydrological cycle. It implies that an ambiguity with respect to the processes encoded in spectral and cross-spectral density functions exists. Previous studies have not paid attention adequately to this issue. Spectral and cross-spectral density functions represent the Fourier transforms of auto-covariance and cross-covariance functions. Using this basic property, the ambiguity is resolved by applying a novel approach based on the spectral representation of partial correlation. Mathematical background for partial spectral density, partial amplitude and partial phase functions is presented. The proposed functions yield the estimates of spectral density, amplitude and phase that are not affected by a controlling process. If an input-output relation is the subject of interest, antecedent and subsequent influences of the controlling process can be distinguished considering the input event as a referent point. The method is used for analyses of the relations between the rainfall, air temperature and relative humidity, as well as the influences of air temperature and relative humidity on the discharge from karst spring. Time series are collected in the catchment of the Jadro Spring located in the Dinaric karst area of Croatia.

In this paper a novel numerical scheme for finding the sparse self-localized states of a nonlinear system of equations with missing spectral data is introduced. As in the Petviashivili's and the spectral renormalization method, the governing equation is transformed into Fourier domain, but the iterations are performed for far fewer number of spectral components (M) than classical versions of the these methods with higher number of spectral components (N). After the converge criteria is achieved for M components, N component signal is reconstructed from M components by using the l1 minimization technique of the compressive sampling. This method can be named as compressive spectral renormalization (CSRM) method. The main advantage of the CSRM is that, it is capable of finding the sparse self-localized states of the evolution equation(s) with many spectral data missing.

Recently we showed that the spectral flow acting on the N=2 twisted topological theories gives rise to a topological algebra automorphism. Here we point out that the untwisting of that automorphism leads to a spectral flow on the untwisted N=2 superconformal algebra which is different from the usual one. This "other" spectral flow does not interpolate between the chiral ring and the antichiral ring. In particular, it maps the chiral ring into the chiral ring and the antichiral ring into the antichiral ring. We discuss the similarities and differences between both spectral flows. We also analyze their action on null states.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — Summary of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge from July 1935-May 1942 to carry on restoration and development of Des...

. An assessment of bedform migration was achieved, as the growth and displacement of every single constituent can be distinguished. It can be shown that the changes in amplitude remain small for all harmonic constituents, whereas the phase shifts differ significantly. Thus the harmonics can be classified....... The proposed method overcomes the above mentioned problems of common descriptive analysis as it is an objective and straightforward mathematical process. The spectral decomposition of superimposed dunes allows a detailed description and analysis of dune patterns and migration....

It is demonstrated that the longitudinal spectral coherence differs significantly from the transversal spectral coherence in its dependence on displacement and frequency. An expression for the longitudinal coherence is derived and it is shown how the scale of turbulence, the displacement between...

Spacetime, understood as a globally hyperbolic manifold, may be characterized by spectral data using a 3+1 splitting into space and time, a description of space by spectral triples and by employing causal relationships, as proposed earlier. Here, it is proposed to use the Hadamard condition of quantum field theory as a smoothness principle.

SRD 115 Hydrocarbon Spectral Database (Web, free access) All of the rotational spectral lines observed and reported in the open literature for 91 hydrocarbon molecules have been tabulated. The isotopic molecular species, assigned quantum numbers, observed frequency, estimated measurement uncertainty and reference are given for each transition reported.

For a physical interpretation of a theory of quantum gravity, it is necessary to recover classical spacetime, at least approximately. However, quantum gravity may eventually provide classical spacetimes by giving spectral data similar to those appearing in noncommutative geometry, rather than by giving directly a spacetime manifold. It is shown that a globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold can be given by spectral data. A new phenomenon in the context of spectral geometry is observed: causal relationships. The employment of the causal relationships of spectral data is shown to lead to a highly efficient description of Lorentzian manifolds, indicating the possible usefulness of this approach. Connections to free quantum field theory are discussed for both motivation and physical interpretation. It is conjectured that the necessary spectral data can be generically obtained from an effective field theory having the fundamental structures of generalized quantum mechanics: a decoherence functional and a choice of...

The spectral gap -- the difference in energy between the ground state and the first excited state -- is one of the most important properties of a quantum many-body system. Quantum phase transitions occur when the spectral gap vanishes and the system becomes critical. Much of physics is concerned with understanding the phase diagrams of quantum systems, and some of the most challenging and long-standing open problems in theoretical physics concern the spectral gap, such as the Haldane conjecture that the Heisenberg chain is gapped for integer spin, proving existence of a gapped topological spin liquid phase, or the Yang-Mills gap conjecture (one of the Millennium Prize problems). These problems are all particular cases of the general spectral gap problem: Given a quantum many-body Hamiltonian, is the system it describes gapped or gapless? Here we show that this problem is undecidable, in the same sense as the Halting Problem was proven to be undecidable by Turing. A consequence of this is that the spectral gap...

Spectral imaging is the combination of spectroscopy and imaging. These fields are well developed and are used intensively in many application fields including industry and the life sciences. The classical approach to acquire hyper-spectral data is to sequentially scan a sample in space or wavelength. These acquisition methods are time consuming because only two spatial dimensions, or one spatial and the spectral dimension, can be acquired simultaneously. With a computed tomography imaging spectrometer (CTIS) it is possible to acquire two spatial dimensions and a spectral dimension during a single integration time, without scanning either spatial or spectral dimensions. This makes it possible to acquire dynamic image scenes without spatial registration of the hyperspectral data. This is advantageous compared to tunable filter based systems which need sophisticated image registration techniques. While tunable filters provide full spatial and spectral resolution, for CTIS systems there is always a tradeoff between spatial and spectral resolution as the spatial and spectral information corresponding to an image cube is squeezed onto a 2D image. The presented CTIS system uses a spectral-dispersion element to project the spectral and spatial image information onto a 2D CCD camera array. The system presented in this paper is designed for a microscopy application for the analysis of fixed specimens in pathology and cytogenetics, cell imaging and material analysis. However, the CTIS approach is not limited to microscopy applications, thus it would be possible to implement it in a hand-held device for e.g. real-time, intra-surgery tissue classification.

The gymnotoid electric fish Hypopomus artedi discriminates between electric stimulus pulses with identical spectral amplitudes but different spectralphase functions. Behavioral results can be explained on the assumption that electroreception is based on a linear filter, approximately matched to the species' electric organ discharge. The impulse response of the appropriate matched filter, in fact, resembles the known impulse response of the electroreceptors involved.

We propose a theoretical and experimental study of a three-phase flow metering process for oil-water-gas flows. The selected process is based on a combination of a mixer, a Venturi and ultrasonic methods. To perform an experimental validation of this process an instrumented set-up for three-phase air-oil-water flows has been designed, conceived and adjusted. An original theoretical model have been built to predict three-phase dispersed flows across a contraction. Once validated with two-phase air-water, oil-water and air-oil-water flows data, this model has been used to solve the Venturi metering problems. After a critical review of the available techniques, the ultrasonic propagation velocity has been selected to determine two-phase liquid-liquid flow composition. Two original models have been developed to describe the ultrasonic propagation with the dispersed phase fraction. The comparison with experimental data in oil-water flows show the superiority of one of the two models, the scattering model. For the void fraction determination in air-water flows, the work of Bensler (1990) based on the ultrasonic attenuation measurement has been extended to take into account the multiple scattering effects. Finally these techniques have been combined to determine the different flow rates in air-water, oil-water flows. For two-phase air-water and oil-water flows the problem is solved and the flow rates are measured with a very good accuracy ({+-} 3%). The results quality obtained with three-phase oil-water-gas flows and the secure theoretical bases allowing their interpretation give us the opportunity to strongly recommend the development of an industrial prototype based on the process we studied. (author) 183 refs.

Maldistribution of liquid-vapour two phase flows causes a significant decrease of the thermal and hydraulic performance of evaporators in thermodynamic vapour compression cycles. A first experimental installation was used to visualize the two phase flow evolution between the expansion valve and the evaporator inlet. A second experimental set-up simulating a compact heat exchanger has been designed to identify the functional and geometrical parameters creating the best distribution of the two phases in the different channels. An analysis and a comprehension of the relation between the geometrical and functional parameters with the flow pattern inside the header and the two phase distribution, has been established. A numerical simulations of a stratified flow and a stratified jet flow have been carried out using two CFD codes: FLUENT and NEPTUNE. In the case of a fragmented jet configuration, a global definition of the interfacial area concentration for a separated phases and dispersed phases flow has been established and a model calculating the fragmented mass fraction has been developed. (author)

Spectral Radius of Graphs provides a thorough overview of important results on the spectral radius of adjacency matrix of graphs that have appeared in the literature in the preceding ten years, most of them with proofs, and including some previously unpublished results of the author. The primer begins with a brief classical review, in order to provide the reader with a foundation for the subsequent chapters. Topics covered include spectral decomposition, the Perron-Frobenius theorem, the Rayleigh quotient, the Weyl inequalities, and the Interlacing theorem. From this introduction, the

The purpose of the work is to study two-phase mixture heat exchange composed of water particles suspended in silicone oil circulating in a closed loop. Water, contained in polymer porous matrix, is freezing by successive passages in plane plate heat exchanger. Thermo-hydraulic literature data analysis about these fluids in exchangers shows important blanks in exchange coefficient and pressure drop forecast methods and in experimental data. Experimental results, issued of global energy balance on a test section specifically conceived and made for this study, show doping effect on exchange coefficient. Before phase change, micro-convective effects of rotating particles improve exchange coefficient of 2,3 factor. Supplementary enhancement included between 2 and 16 appeared during phase change. Trial measured discrepancy are certainly induced by bed layer formation due to low flow speed. At the end of particle freezing, when latent heat is not involved anymore in exchange enhancement, important heat transfer reduction is observed. This is attributed to the cooling suspension rheological evolution and the change of flow particle distribution. Modelling results corroborate heat exchange improvement due to phase change: particles act as sources when discharging there latent heat. They stop fluid temperature dropping and enable to keep a high wall temperature gradient. A deepened suspension rheological study is necessary for a better understanding of observed phenomenon, nevertheless these first results show already an important energetic profit brings by particles in range temperature of 0 and -6 deg C. (author)

Biodiesel produced from ethanolysis is more renewable and have better properties (higher oxidation stability, lower cloud and pour point) compared to methanolysis, but it has a disadvantage such as complicated purification. To improve ethanolysis process, deep eutectic solvent (DES) can be prepared from choline chloride and glycerol and used as co-solvent in ethanolysis. The deep eutectic solvent is formed from a quaternary ammonium salt (choline chloride) and a hydrogen bond donor (Glycerol), it is a non-toxic, biodegradable solvent compared to a conventional volatile organic solvent such as hexane. The deep eutectic solvent is prepared by mixing choline chloride and glycerol with molar ratio 1:2 at temperature 80 °C, stirring speed 300 rpm for 1 hour. The DES is characterized by its density and viscosity. The ethanolysis is performed at a reaction temperature of 70 °C, ethanol to oil molar ratio of 9:1, potassium hydroxide as catalyst concentration of 1.2 wt. DES as co-solvent with concentration 0.5 to 3 wt. stirring speed 400 rpm, and a reaction time 1 hour. The obtained biodiesel is then characterized by its density, viscosity, and ester content. The oil - ethanol phase condition is observed in the reaction tube. The oil - ethanol phase with DES tends to form meniscus compared to without DES, showed that oil and ethanol become more slightly miscible, which favors the reaction. Using DES as co-solvent in ethanolysis showed increasing in yield and easier purification. The esters properties meet the international standards ASTM D6751, with the highest yield achieved 83,67 with 99,77 conversion at DES concentration 2 . Increasing DES concentration above 2 in ethanolysis decrease the conversion and yield, because of the excessive glycerol in the systems makes the reaction equilibrium moves to the reactant side.

We study the cross-phase-modulation-induced soliton spectral shifting in the regime of the optical event horizon. The perturbed soliton to either red-shifting or blue-shifting is controllable, which could evoke bidirectional soliton spectral tunneling effects.......We study the cross-phase-modulation-induced soliton spectral shifting in the regime of the optical event horizon. The perturbed soliton to either red-shifting or blue-shifting is controllable, which could evoke bidirectional soliton spectral tunneling effects....

The aim of this thesis is the 3-D modeling and numerical simulation of liquid/gas (water/vapor or water/air) two-phase flows in cooling circuits of nuclear power plants during normal and accidental situations. The development of a multidimensional dual-fluid model encounters two problems: the statistical effects of turbulence and the interface mass, momentum and energy transfers. The models developed in this study were introduced in the 3-D module of the CATHARE code developed by the CEA and the results were compared to experimental results available in the literature. The first chapter describes the equations of the local dual-fluid model for the 3-D description of two-phase flows. Closing relations adapted to dispersed flows with isothermal bubbles and without phase transformation are proposed and focus on the momentum transfer at the interfaces. The theoretical study of turbulence in the liquid phase of a bubble flow is modelled in chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with the voluminal interface area used in the interface mass, momentum and energy transfers, and chapters 4 and 5 concern the application of the developed models to concrete situations. Chapter 4 describes in details the 3-D module of the CATHARE code while chapter 5 gives a comparison of numerical results obtained using the CATHARE code with other experimental results obtained at EdF. (J.S.) 109 refs.

It has been traditional in phonetic research to characterize monophthongs using a set of static formant frequencies, i.e., formant frequencies taken from a single time-point in the vowel or averaged over the time-course of the vowel. However, over the last twenty years a growing body of research has demonstrated that, at least for a number of dialects of North American English, vowels which are traditionally described as monophthongs often have substantial spectral change. Vowel Inherent Spectral Change has been observed in speakers’ productions, and has also been found to have a substantial effect on listeners’ perception. In terms of acoustics, the traditional categorical distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs can be replaced by a gradient description of dynamic spectral patterns. This book includes chapters addressing various aspects of vowel inherent spectral change (VISC), including theoretical and experimental studies of the perceptually relevant aspects of VISC, the relationship between ar...

We present the notion of temporal Lorentzian spectral triple which is an extension of the notion of pseudo-Riemannian spectral triple with a way to ensure that the signature of the metric is Lorentzian. A temporal Lorentzian spectral triple corresponds to a specific 3 + 1 decomposition of a possibly noncommutative Lorentzian space. This structure introduces a notion of global time in noncommutative geometry. As an example, we construct a temporal Lorentzian spectral triple over a Moyal-Minkowski spacetime. We show that, when time is commutative, the algebra can be extended to unbounded elements. Using such an extension, it is possible to define a Lorentzian distance formula between pure states with a well-defined noncommutative formulation.

Full Text Available At some time, in the childhood of spectral graph theory, it was conjectured that non-isomorphic graphs have different spectra, i.e. that graphs are characterized by their spectra. Very quickly this conjecture was refuted and numerous examples and families of non-isomorphic graphs with the same spectrum (cospectral graphs were found. Still some graphs are characterized by their spectra and several mathematical papers are devoted to this topic. In applications to computer sciences, spectral graph theory is considered as very strong. The benefit of using graph spectra in treating graphs is that eigenvalues and eigenvectors of several graph matrices can be quickly computed. Spectral graph parameters contain a lot of information on the graph structure (both global and local including some information on graph parameters that, in general, are computed by exponential algorithms. Moreover, in some applications in data mining, graph spectra are used to encode graphs themselves. The Euclidean distance between the eigenvalue sequences of two graphs on the same number of vertices is called the spectral distance of graphs. Some other spectral distances (also based on various graph matrices have been considered as well. Two graphs are considered as similar if their spectral distance is small. If two graphs are at zero distance, they are cospectral. In this sense, cospectral graphs are similar. Other spectrally based measures of similarity between networks (not necessarily having the same number of vertices have been used in Internet topology analysis, and in other areas. The notion of spectral distance enables the design of various meta-heuristic (e.g., tabu search, variable neighbourhood search algorithms for constructing graphs with a given spectrum (spectral graph reconstruction. Several spectrally based pattern recognition problems appear in many areas (e.g., image segmentation in computer vision, alignment of protein-protein interaction networks in bio

Full Text Available Scope of present article is to present the research efforts (implementing experimental study, theoretical analysis and modeling taken towards the development of a complete theory for steady-state concurrent two-phase flow in porous media (the DeProF theory. The current state of progress is outlined and open problems are addressed. First attempts are traced back in the 1980s with the analysis, description and modeling of phenomena governing two-phase flow in pore scale. Appropriate simulators extending over hundreds and/or thousands of pores (network scale were developed in the following decade (1990s; in parallel, extensive experimental research work identified three prototype/elementary flows comprising the average macroscopic flow, namely connected-oil pathway flow, ganglion dynamics and drop traffic flow and mapped their relative contribution to the macroscopic flow in terms of the process parameters. Efforts to provide a consistent physical rationale to explain the experimental observations, i.e. the map of prototype flow regimes, laid the grounds for developing the DeProF (Decomposition in Prototype Flows theory. Amongst the main results/features of the DeProF theory was the identification of the actual operational and system parameters of the process and the introduction – according to ergodicity principles – of the domain of physically admissible internal flow arrangements of the average macroscopic flow. Use of the respective mechanistic model as a simulation tool (in the 2000s revealed many characteristic properties of the sought process. Important is the existence of optimum operating conditions in the form of a smooth and continuous locus in the domain of the process operational parameters. This characteristic remained in latency within the relative permeability curves, until recently unveiled by the DeProF theory. Research efforts continue in the present (2010s by elaborating appropriate physical considerations based on

Spectrally selective glazing is window glass that permits some portions of the solar spectrum to enter a building while blocking others. This high-performance glazing admits as much daylight as possible while preventing transmission of as much solar heat as possible. By controlling solar heat gains in summer, preventing loss of interior heat in winter, and allowing occupants to reduce electric lighting use by making maximum use of daylight, spectrally selective glazing significantly reduces building energy consumption and peak demand. Because new spectrally selective glazings can have a virtually clear appearance, they admit more daylight and permit much brighter, more open views to the outside while still providing the solar control of the dark, reflective energy-efficient glass of the past. This Federal Technology Alert provides detailed information and procedures for Federal energy managers to consider spectrally selective glazings. The principle of spectrally selective glazings is explained. Benefits related to energy efficiency and other architectural criteria are delineated. Guidelines are provided for appropriate application of spectrally selective glazing, and step-by-step instructions are given for estimating energy savings. Case studies are also presented to illustrate actual costs and energy savings. Current manufacturers, technology users, and references for further reading are included for users who have questions not fully addressed here.

Spectral control is a key technology for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) direct energy conversion systems because only a fraction (typically less than 25%) of the incident thermal radiation has energy exceeding the diode bandgap energy, E{sub g}, and can thus be converted to electricity. The goal for TPV spectral control in most applications is twofold: (1) Maximize TPV efficiency by minimizing transfer of low energy, below bandgap photons from the radiator to the TPV diode. (2) Maximize TPV surface power density by maximizing transfer of high energy, above bandgap photons from the radiator to the TPV diode. TPV spectral control options include: front surface filters (e.g. interference filters, plasma filters, interference/plasma tandem filters, and frequency selective surfaces), back surface reflectors, and wavelength selective radiators. System analysis shows that spectral performance dominates diode performance in any practical TPV system, and that low bandgap diodes enable both higher efficiency and power density when spectral control limitations are considered. Lockheed Martin has focused its efforts on front surface tandem filters which have achieved spectral efficiencies of {approx}83% for E{sub g} = 0.52 eV and {approx}76% for E{sub g} = 0.60 eV for a 950 C radiator temperature.

We present DES13S2cmm, the first spectroscopically-confirmed superluminous supernova (SLSN) from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We briefly discuss the data and search algorithm used to find this event in the first year of DES operations, and outline the spectroscopic data obtained from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope to confirm its redshift (z = 0.663 +/- 0.001 based on the host-galaxy emission lines) and likely spectral type (type I). Using this redshift, we find M_U_peak = -21.05 +0.10 -0.09 for the peak, rest-frame U-band absolute magnitude, and find DES13S2cmm to be located in a faint, low metallicity (sub-solar), low stellar-mass host galaxy (log(M/M_sun) = 9.3 +/- 0.3); consistent with what is seen for other SLSNe-I. We compare the bolometric light curve of DES13S2cmm to fourteen similarly well-observed SLSNe-I in the literature and find it possesses one of the slowest declining tails (beyond +30 days rest frame past peak), and is the faintest at peak. Moreover, we find the b...

Spectral imaging requires rapid analysis of spectra associated with each pixel. A rapid algorithm has been developed that uses iterative matrix inversions to solve for the absorption spectra of a tissue using a lookup table for photon pathlength based on numerical simulations. The algorithm uses tissue water content as an internal standard to specify the strength of optical scattering. An experimental example is presented on the spectroscopy of portwine stain lesions. When implemented in MATLAB, the method is ~100-fold faster than using fminsearch().

In this work the general theory of first order phase transitions in finite systems is discussed, with a special emphasis to the conceptual problems linked to a thermodynamic description for small, short-lived systems de-exciting in the vacuum as nuclear samples coming from heavy ion collisions. After a short review of the general theory of phase transitions in the framework of information theory, we will present the different possible extensions to the field of finite systems. The concept of negative heat capacity, developed in the early seventies in the context of self-gravitating systems, will be reinterpreted in the general framework of convexity anomalies of thermostatistical potentials. The connection with the distribution of the order parameter will lead us to a definition of first order phase transitions in finite systems based on topology anomalies of the event distribution in the space of observations. A careful study of the thermodynamic limit will provide a bridge with the standard theory of phase transitions and show that in a wide class of physical situations the different statistical ensembles are irreducibly inequivalent. In the second part of the paper we will apply the theoretical ideas developed in the first part to the possible observation of a liquid-to-gas-like phase transition in heavy ion collisions. The applicability of equilibrium concepts in a dynamical collisional process without boundary conditions will first be critically discussed. The observation of abnormally large partial energy fluctuations in carefully selected samples of collisions detected with the MULTICS-Miniball and INDRA array will then be reported as a strong evidence of a first order phase transition with negative heat capacity in the nuclear equation of state. Coexistence de phase dans les noyaux Ce papier présente une revue de la théorie générale des transitions de phase du premier ordre dans les petits systèmes, avec une attention particulière aux probl

The method of cooling based on the thermosyphon principle is of great interest because of its simplicity, its passivity and its low cost. It is adopted to cool down to 4,5 K the superconducting magnet of the CMS particles detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment under construction at CERN, Geneva. This work studies heat and mass transfer characteristics of two phase He I in a natural circulation loop. The experimental set-up consists of a thermosyphon single branch loop mainly composed of a phase separator, a downward tube, and a test section. The experiments were conducted with varying several parameters such as the diameter of the test section (10 mm or 14 mm) and the applied heat flux up to the appearance of the boiling crisis. These experiments have permitted to determine the laws of evolution of the various parameters characterizing the flow (circulation mass flow rate, vapour mass flow rate, vapour quality, friction coefficient, two phase heat transfer coefficient and the critical heat flux) as a function of the applied heat flux. On the base of the obtained results, we discuss the validity of the various existing models in the literature. We show that the homogeneous model is the best model to predict the hydrodynamical properties of this type of flow in the vapour quality range 0{<=}x{<=}30%. Moreover, we propose two models for the prediction of the two phase heat transfer coefficient and the density of the critical heat flux. The first one considers that the effects of the forced convection and nucleate boiling act simultaneously and contribute to heat transfer. The second one correlates the measured critical heat flux density with the ratio altitude to diameter. (author)

This thesis deals with hyperbolic models for the simulation of compressible two-phase flows, to find alternatives to the classical bi-fluid model. We first establish a hierarchy of two-phase flow models, obtained according to equilibrium hypothesis between the physical variables of each phase. The use of Chapman-Enskog expansions enables us to link the different existing models to each other. Moreover, models that take into account small physical unbalances are obtained by means of expansion to the order one. The second part of this thesis focuses on the simulation of flows featuring velocity unbalances and pressure balances, in two different ways. First, a two-velocity two-pressure model is used, where non-instantaneous velocity and pressure relaxations are applied so that a balancing of these variables is obtained. A new one-velocity one-pressure dissipative model is then proposed, where the arising of second-order terms enables us to take into account unbalances between the phase velocities. We develop a numerical method based on a fractional step approach for this model. (author)

Full Text Available Le projet de « gestion du patrimoine de Tunisie » s’est déroulé de 1997 à 1998 sur l’ensemble du territoire tunisien. L’objectif était de réaliser un atlas exhaustif des monuments historiques classés de Tunisie. La réalisation s’est déroulée en deux phases : l’atlas des monuments historiques classés de Tunisie identifiant et localisant sur des cartes les monuments, réalisé sous l’autorité du directeur des sites et monuments de Tunisie de l’Institut du Patrimoine à Tunis et une seconde phase d’organisation d’un fichier d’investigation sur le territoire et de développement d’un système d’information géographique réalisé sous la direction du bureau d’études italien Memar.In Tunisia, the Executive for sites and monuments at the national Institute for heritage, took the initiative of preparing an atlas of 1 000 historical monuments recorded before the independence of the country in 1956. The atlas was produced between 1996 and 1998. To begin with, a notice on each site was drawn up, with a distinction made between archaeological sites and historical sites of modern times. After checking in the field, their location was recorded on mapping documents. The files were then integrated into a geographical information system, associating each site with written, photographic and other graphic documents. This work was realised under the technical and scientific direction of the Memar Italian research department.

Nonlinear spectral associative memories are proposed as quantized frequency domain formulations of nonlinear, recurrent associative memories in which volatile network attractors are instantiated by attractor waves. In contrast to conventional associative memories, attractors encoded in the frequency domain by convolution may be viewed as volatile online inputs, rather than nonvolatile, off-line parameters. Spectral memories hold several advantages over conventional associative memories, including decoder/attractor separability and linear scalability, which make them especially well suited for digital communications. Bit patterns may be transmitted over a noisy channel in a spectral attractor and recovered at the receiver by recurrent, spectral decoding. Massive nonlocal connectivity is realized virtually, maintaining high symbol-to-bit ratios while scaling linearly with pattern dimension. For n-bit patterns, autoassociative memories achieve the highest noise immunity, whereas heteroassociative memories offer the added flexibility of achieving various code rates, or degrees of extrinsic redundancy. Due to linear scalability, high noise immunity and use of conventional building blocks, spectral associative memories hold much promise for achieving robust communication systems. Simulations are provided showing bit error rates for various degrees of decoding time, computational oversampling, and signal-to-noise ratio.

It is possible to enumerate all computer programs. In particular, for every partial computable function, there is a shortest program which computes that function. f-MIN is the set of indices for shortest programs. In 1972, Meyer showed that f-MIN is Turing equivalent to 0'', the halting set with halting set oracle. This paper generalizes the notion of shortest programs, and we use various measures from computability theory to describe the complexity of the resulting "spectral sets." We show that under certain Godel numberings, the spectral sets are exactly the canonical sets 0', 0'', 0''', ... up to Turing equivalence. This is probably not true in general, however we show that spectral sets always contain some useful information. We show that immunity, or "thinness" is a useful characteristic for distinguishing between spectral sets. In the final chapter, we construct a set which neither contains nor is disjoint from any infinite arithmetic set, yet it is 0-majorized and contains a natural spectral set. Thus ...

This thesis is devoted to the modelling and numerical simulation of liquid-vapor flows. In order to describe these phase transition flows, a two-fluid two-pressure approach is considered. This description of the liquid-vapor mixing is associated to the seven-equation model introduced by Baer and Nunziato. This work investigates the properties of this model in order to simulate the phase transition flows occurring in nuclear engineering. First, a theoretical thermodynamic framework is constructed to describe the liquid-vapor mixing. Provided with this framework, various modelling choices are suggested for the interaction terms between the phases. These closure laws comply with an entropy inequality. The mathematical properties of this model are thereafter examined. The convective part is associated to a nonconservative hyperbolic system. First, we focus on the definition of its weak solutions. Several flow regimes for the two-phase mixing derive from this analysis. Such regimes for the two-phase flows are analogous to the torrential and fluvial regimes for the shallow-water equations. Furthermore, we establish the linear and nonlinear stabilities of the liquid-vapor equilibrium. Finally, the implementation of a turbulence model and the introduction of a reconstruction process for the interfacial area are investigated in order to refine the description of the interfacial transfers. Using a fractional step approach, a Finite Volume method is at last constructed to simulate this model. First, various nonconservative adaptations of standard Riemann solvers are developed to approach the convective part. Unlike the classic nonconservative framework, these schemes converge towards the same solution. Furthermore, a new relaxation scheme is proposed to approach the interfacial transfers. Provided with these schemes, the whole numerical method preserves the liquid-vapor equilibria. Using this numerical method, a careful comparison between the one- and two-pressure two

This paper discusses the various elemental random and nonrandom error sources in typical spectral responsivity measurement systems. The authors focus specifically on the filter and grating monochrometer-based spectral responsivity measurement systems used by the Photovoltaic (PV) performance characterization team at NREL. A variety of subtle measurement errors can occur that arise from a finite photo-current response time, bandwidth of the monochromatic light, waveform of the monochromatic light, and spatial uniformity of the monochromatic and bias lights; the errors depend on the light source, PV technology, and measurement system. The quantum efficiency can be a function of he voltage bias, light bias level, and, for some structures, the spectral content of the bias light or location on the PV device. This paper compares the advantages and problems associated with semiconductor-detector-based calibrations and pyroelectric-detector-based calibrations. Different current-to-voltage conversion and ac photo-current detection strategies employed at NREL are compared and contrasted.

We apply and illustrate the techniques of spectral networks in a large collection of A_{K-1} theories of class S, which we call "lifted A_1 theories." Our construction makes contact with Fock and Goncharov's work on higher Teichmuller theory. In particular we show that the Darboux coordinates on moduli spaces of flat connections which come from certain special spectral networks coincide with the Fock-Goncharov coordinates. We show, moreover, how these techniques can be used to study the BPS spectra of lifted A_1 theories. In particular, we determine the spectrum generators for all the lifts of a simple superconformal field theory.

This final report for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) reviews the work done in the first phase of a project concerning the concept for a district heating system in Martigny, Switzerland. This work was carried out by the Centre for Municipal and Energy Research CREM in Martigny, Switzerland, and the Laboratory for Industrial Energy LENI at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Software developed at the LENI is introduced and its use for the determination of the necessary configuration and modes of operation of a district heating system in Martigny is discussed. The situation in the Morasses district of Martigny and the promising results obtained are looked at. These can lead to the optimisation of heating supply in other such areas.

The image information acquisition ability of a conventional camera is usually much lower than the Shannon Limit since it does not make use of the correlation between pixels of image data. Applying a random phase modulator to code the spectral images and combining with compressive sensing (CS) theory, a spectral camera based on true thermal light ghost imaging via sparsity constraints (GISC spectral camera) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. GISC spectral camera can acquire the information at a rate significantly below the Nyquist rate, and the resolution of the cells in the three-dimensional (3D) spectral images data-cube can be achieved with a two-dimensional (2D) detector in a single exposure. For the first time, GISC spectral camera opens the way of approaching the Shannon Limit determined by Information Theory in optical imaging instruments.

The image information acquisition ability of a conventional camera is usually much lower than the Shannon Limit since it does not make use of the correlation between pixels of image data. Applying a random phase modulator to code the spectral images and combining with compressive sensing (CS) theory, a spectral camera based on true thermal light ghost imaging via sparsity constraints (GISC spectral camera) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. GISC spectral camera can acquire the information at a rate significantly below the Nyquist rate, and the resolution of the cells in the three-dimensional (3D) spectral images data-cube can be achieved with a two-dimensional (2D) detector in a single exposure. For the first time, GISC spectral camera opens the way of approaching the Shannon Limit determined by Information Theory in optical imaging instruments.

After having chosen between different cooling solutions for a given power electronics component, the dimensioning of a two-phase forced convection loop is described. The power electronics component is a 12 x 12 mm silicon pellet which can dissipate up to 400 W/cm{sup 2} heat fluxes. In a first step, the minimum size of channels is determined according to fluid characteristics, pressure drop and critical fluxes. In a second step, the coupled dimensioning of both the evaporator and the condenser is determined for different values of pipes diameter and mass flow rates. (J.S.) 8 refs.

Spectral relaxation from fluorescent probes is a useful technique for determining the dynamics of condensed phases. To this end, we have developed a method based on wide-field spectral fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy to extract spectral relaxation correlation times of fluorescent probes in living cells. We show that measurement of the phase and modulation of fluorescence from two wavelengths permit the identification and determination of excited state lifetimes and spectral relaxation correlation times at a single modulation frequency. For NBD fluorescence in glycerol/water mixtures, the spectral relaxation correlation time determined by our approach exhibited good agreement with published dielectric relaxation measurements. We applied this method to determine the spectral relaxation dynamics in membranes of living cells. Measurements of the Golgi-specific C6-NBD-ceramide probe in living HeLa cells revealed sub-nanosecond spectral dynamics in the intracellular Golgi membrane and slower nanosecond spectral dynamics in the extracellular plasma membrane. We interpret the distinct spectral dynamics as a result of structural plasticity of the Golgi membrane relative to more rigid plasma membranes. To the best of our knowledge, these results constitute one of the first measurements of Golgi rotational dynamics.

Spectral relaxation from fluorescent probes is a useful technique for determining the dynamics of condensed phases. To this end, we have developed a method based on wide-field spectral fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy to extract spectral relaxation correlation times of fluorescent probes in living cells. We show that measurement of the phase and modulation of fluorescence from two wavelengths permit the identification and determination of excited state lifetimes and spectral relaxation correlation times at a single modulation frequency. For NBD fluorescence in glycerol/water mixtures, the spectral relaxation correlation time determined by our approach exhibited good agreement with published dielectric relaxation measurements. We applied this method to determine the spectral relaxation dynamics in membranes of living cells. Measurements of the Golgi-specific C6-NBD-ceramide probe in living HeLa cells revealed sub-nanosecond spectral dynamics in the intracellular Golgi membrane and slower nanosecond spectral dynamics in the extracellular plasma membrane. We interpret the distinct spectral dynamics as a result of structural plasticity of the Golgi membrane relative to more rigid plasma membranes. To the best of our knowledge, these results constitute one of the first measurements of Golgi rotational dynamics.

Two kinds of specimens out of the quenched and hardened steel 42CrMo4 (similar SAE 4140) were tested by combined tension-torsion in- and out-of-phase loading. The specimens batches differed in the residual stress state. Under cyclic, stress controlled loading an elastic behaviour is registrated until 50% of the life time. Then a rapid softening occurs, which correlates with the von-Mises equivalent stress in the case of in-phase loading. At high stress amplitudes, the residual stresses may be neglected. The lifetime is best described by the fatigue criterion of Zenner which considers the integral average of the stress state in every plane. This stress state is described by a linear combination of the shear stress amplitude and the normal stress amplitude. Below the cyclic yield strength, the residual stresses must be taken into account as static stresses. The comparison of the local residual stress distributions is possible by using the weakest link model of Heckel, which is described in detail. (orig.)

Petroleum reservoirs are made of highly heterogeneous rocks. Simulations of these reservoirs result in geo-scientific works to integrate the data and knowledge about the field. Generally, the reservoir is represented on a very high resolution (HR) grid which can be composed of millions of cells. In order to run fluid flow simulations, it is necessary to reduce the number of cells. Thus, conventional method is to coarsen the grid and to obtain a lower resolution (LR) grid by doing up-scaling before the fluid flow simulation is done. The alternative we propose to classical method is to consider, for a coupled system pressure-saturation a specific discretization in time and space for each unknown. So, for a two phase problem, the principle is to solve the pressure equation over a LR grid and the saturation equation over a HR grid. In addition to the usual steps used in an IMPES scheme, it is necessary to allow the transfer of the results of the implicit resolution of the pressure equation form the LR o the HR Grid and calculate the averaged parameters necessary to the resolution of the pressure equation during the next time step by taking into account the evolution of the saturation. The validation of the Dual Mesh Method has been done for a two-phase problem both theoretically and practically. (author) 73 refs.

We investigate electron spin- and phase coherence in an array of quasi-ballistic InAs quantum well mesoscopic rings through observation of Aharonov-Bohm h/e oscillations (AB) and Altshuler-Aronov-Spivak h/2e oscillations (AAS). The temperature dependence of the AAS oscillations is characterized through a single effective coherence length, Leff , following the formalism of Douçot and Rammal, from which the phase coherence length, Lϕ and the spin coherence length as limited by spin-orbit interaction, LSO , are extracted. AB oscillations are also present, and can be separated from AAS by Fourier transformation. We contrast the AAS method of extracting the coherence lengths with analysis of the AB oscillation amplitudes. Previous studies have examined Lϕ from AB signals in single ballistic rings, or by using AAS amplitudes in large networks, or have observed AB and AAS in single rings with spin-orbit interaction. Here the presence of both AB and AAS in an array with spin-orbit interaction allows for study of both Lϕ and LSO , and enables direct juxtaposition of different quantum coherence phenomena as means for measuring coherence lengths (DOE DE-FG02-08ER46532).

Spectral methods, that is, those based in the Fourier transform, have long been employed in the analysis of magnetic anomalies. For example, Schouten and MaCamy's Earth filter is used extensively to map patterns to the pole, and Parker's Fourier transform series facilitates forward modeling and provides an efficient algorithm for inversion of profiles and surveys. From a different, and perhaps less familiar perspective, magnetic anomalies can be represented as the realization of a stationary stochastic process and then statistical theory can be brought to bear. It is vital to incorporate the full 2-D power spectrum, even when discussing profile data. For example, early analysis of long profiles failed to discover the small-wavenumber peak in the power spectrum predicted by one-dimensional theory. The long-wavelength excess is the result of spatial aliasing, when energy leaks into the along-track spectrum from the cross-track components of the 2-D spectrum. Spectral techniques may be used to improve interpolation and downward continuation of survey data. They can also evaluate the reliability of sub-track magnetization models both across and and along strike. Along-strike profiles turn out to be surprisingly good indicators of the magnetization directly under them; there is high coherence between the magnetic anomaly and the magnetization over a wide band. In contrast, coherence is weak at long wavelengths on across-strike lines, which is naturally the favored orientation for most studies. When vector (or multiple level) measurements are available, cross-spectral analysis can reveal the wavenumber interval where the geophysical signal resides, and where noise dominates. One powerful diagnostic is that the phase spectrum between the vertical and along-path components of the field must be constant 90 degrees. To illustrate, it was found that on some very long Project Magnetic lines, only the lowest 10% of the wavenumber band contain useful geophysical signal. In this

We reconsider the nonlinear second order Abel equation of Stewart and Lyth, which follows from a nonlinear second order slow-roll approximation. We find a new eigenvalue spectrum in the blue regime. Some of the discrete values of the spectral index n_s have consistent fits to the cumulative COBE data as well as to recent ground-base CMB experiments.

Hyperspectral imaging produces a spectrum or vector at each image pixel. These spectra can be used to identify materials present in the image. In some cases, spectral libraries representing atmospheric chemicals or ground materials are available. The challenge is to determine if any of the library chemicals or materials exist in the hyperspectral image. The number of spectra in these libraries can be very large, far exceeding the number of spectral channels collected in the ¯eld. Suppose an image pixel contains a mixture of p spectra from the library. Is it possible to uniquely identify these p spectra? We address this question in this paper and refer to it as the Large Spectral Library (LSL) problem. We show how to determine if unique identi¯cation is possible for any given library. We also show that if p is small compared to the number of spectral channels, it is very likely that unique identi¯cation is possible. We show that unique identi¯cation becomes less likely as p increases.

In this talk I summarize the progress achieved in recent years on the understanding of quarkonium properties at finite temperature. Theoretical studies from potential models, lattice QCD, and effective field theories are discussed. I also highlight a bridge from spectral functions to experiment.

Most fingerprint recognition systems are based on the use of a minutiae set, which is an unordered collection of minutiae locations and directions suffering from various deformations such as translation, rotation and scaling. The spectral minutiae representation introduced in this paper is a novel m

Full Text Available Background: The Tissue Microarray Data Exchange Specification (TMA DES is an XML specification for encoding TMA experiment data. While TMA DES data is encoded in XML, the files that describe its syntax, structure, and semantics are not. The DTD format is used to describe the syntax and structure of TMA DES, and the ISO 11179 format is used to define the semantics of TMA DES. However, XML Schema can be used in place of DTDs, and another XML encoded format, RDF, can be used in place of ISO 11179. Encoding all TMA DES data and metadata in XML would simplify the development and usage of programs which validate and parse TMA DES data. XML Schema has advantages over DTDs such as support for data types, and a more powerful means of specifying constraints on data values. An advantage of RDF encoded in XML over ISO 11179 is that XML defines rules for encoding data, whereas ISO 11179 does not. Materials and Methods: We created an XML Schema version of the TMA DES DTD. We wrote a program that converted ISO 11179 definitions to RDF encoded in XML, and used it to convert the TMA DES ISO 11179 definitions to RDF. Results: We validated a sample TMA DES XML file that was supplied with the publication that originally specified TMA DES using our XML Schema. We successfully validated the RDF produced by our ISO 11179 converter with the W3C RDF validation service. Conclusions: All TMA DES data could be encoded using XML, which simplifies its processing. XML Schema allows datatypes and valid value ranges to be specified for CDEs, which enables a wider range of error checking to be performed using XML Schemas than could be performed using DTDs.

The Tissue Microarray Data Exchange Specification (TMA DES) is an XML specification for encoding TMA experiment data. While TMA DES data is encoded in XML, the files that describe its syntax, structure, and semantics are not. The DTD format is used to describe the syntax and structure of TMA DES, and the ISO 11179 format is used to define the semantics of TMA DES. However, XML Schema can be used in place of DTDs, and another XML encoded format, RDF, can be used in place of ISO 11179. Encoding all TMA DES data and metadata in XML would simplify the development and usage of programs which validate and parse TMA DES data. XML Schema has advantages over DTDs such as support for data types, and a more powerful means of specifying constraints on data values. An advantage of RDF encoded in XML over ISO 11179 is that XML defines rules for encoding data, whereas ISO 11179 does not. We created an XML Schema version of the TMA DES DTD. We wrote a program that converted ISO 11179 definitions to RDF encoded in XML, and used it to convert the TMA DES ISO 11179 definitions to RDF. We validated a sample TMA DES XML file that was supplied with the publication that originally specified TMA DES using our XML Schema. We successfully validated the RDF produced by our ISO 11179 converter with the W3C RDF validation service. All TMA DES data could be encoded using XML, which simplifies its processing. XML Schema allows datatypes and valid value ranges to be specified for CDEs, which enables a wider range of error checking to be performed using XML Schemas than could be performed using DTDs.

In this thesis, we try to provide elements of a non-deterministic view of the coordination of research activities in the phase of emergence. Firstly, we try to identify the variables that determinate the strength and the characteristics of the imperative of coordination in this very preliminary period of an innovation process. Secondly, we try to evaluate the institutional arrangements that can effectively sustain the coordination of the activities of the various interdependent actors more or less involved in the innovation process. The basic idea of the thesis is that technological innovations do not originate as isolated according to a hypothetical underlying 'nature of the technology', especially when they are controversial and subject to great uncertainties as is the case with regard to batteries for Electric and hybrid Vehicles (EVs). Innovations appear to be generated by means of the interactions of a number of organizations belonging to different 'spheres' (different industries, scientific disciplines, public institutions, etc.). In order to validate a new area of opportunity which is still very uncertain at this preliminary stage, the competences and interests of these different organizations must be coordinated. Because of the complex mix of economic and technological barriers faced by the actors taking part in this innovation process, the area of batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles is the 'perfect laboratory' to investigate the institutional arrangements that can sustain the coordination of research and innovation activities relating to an emerging technology. The empirical and theoretical investigations are mainly focused on pre-competitive research consortia such as the United-States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC). This case study is conducted through in-depth interviews with key-actors of the area of batteries and electric vehicles. We also use the results of an on-line experts opinions survey we performed

There has been a strong, application driven development of Si-based cameras and spectrometers for imaging and spectral analysis of light in the visible and near infrared spectral range. This has resulted in very efficient devices, with high quantum efficiency, good signal to noise ratio and high...... resolution for this spectral region. Today, an increasing number of applications exists outside the spectral region covered by Si-based devices, e.g. within cleantech, medical or food imaging. We present a technology based on wavelength conversion which will extend the spectral coverage of state of the art...... visible or near infrared cameras and spectrometers to include other spectral regions of interest....

The Lucerne School of Engineering and Architecture was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy in 2004 to establish (in a first phase) a Center of Competence 'Compressed Air'. The project aimed at assessing the potential improvements of compressed air systems in operation. The Center of Competence 'Compressed Air' was to be promoted through publications in professional journals and users alerted to the inefficiency of compressed air systems. Tests were performed on-site on six compressed air systems, focussing on the compressed air distribution lines. The analyses showed that while the compressed air generated in one small system did little more than cover the losses in its distribution system, leakages in the other systems were less serious. Nevertheless, all of the systems showed potential improvements, though pressure losses in all systems were acceptable. The project has raised the awareness of users of compressed air and contributed to the development of energy-efficient compressed air systems. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy's campaign 'Druckluft Schweiz' will continue with these efforts, further promoting efficient energy use. (author)

Recent estimations predict that over half the remaining offshore oil and gas reserves are located in deep water and marginal fields. For such reserves, economic recovery methods are required. Then, multiphase flows are transported within pipelines and separated on treatment platforms built in shallow water or processed in onshore facilities. Unfortunately, hydrodynamic instabilities may occur whenever gas and liquid flow in a pipeline, generating serious operating problems. This dissertation presents a new way to model two-phase flows in pipelines such as pipeline-riser systems. Equations are algebraic and differential. Their smoothness depends on the closure laws of the problem such as slip or friction laws. Smooth forms of these closure laws are presented for the first time in this dissertation. Therefore, a mathematical analysis of our model fits into a classical frame: a linear analysis leads to an analytical expression of the boundary between stable and unstable flows. A nonlinear analysis provides for the first time, the bifurcation curves of gas-liquid flows in pipe-riser systems, locally round their stability boundary. (author)

The 13th amendment of the German Atomic Energy Act (AtG) was a direct result of the accident in Fukushima in March 2011. As a result, not only the provisional (three-month) shutdown of the eight nuclear power plants immediately shut down after the accident finally passed the parliament, but fixed shutdown times were also decided for the remaining nine NPP's. This was both an increase of the AtG amendment of 2002 and the extension of the NPP licenses decided a few months earlier. Nuclear energy should therefore continue to serve as a ''bridge technology'' within the framework of the Federal Government's energy concept for a longer period. On 6 December 2016 the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has decided that the act on the accelerated phasing-out of nuclear energy in Germany is partly unconstitutional. The judgment is clear on a whole series of legal issues. At the same time, it raises new questions with a view to the final clarification of the compensation.

Full Text Available The data encryption standard is a pioneering and farsighted standard which helped to set a new paradigm for encryption standards. But now DES is considered to be insecure for some application. Asymmetric mask protected DES is an advanced encryption method for effectively protecting the advanced DES. There are still probabilities to improve its security. This paper propose a method, which introduce a RSA key generation scheme in mask protected DES instead of plain key, which result in enhancement in the security of present asymmetric mask protected DES. We further propose a Vedic mathematical method of RSA implementation which reduce the complexity of computation in RSA block thereby resulting in reduced delay (four timesthat improves the performance of overall system. The software implementation was performed using Xilinx 13.2 and Model-Sim was used for the simulation environment.

Periodic rephasing of molecular rotational wave packets can create rapid fluctuations in the optical properties of a molecular gas which can be used to manipulate the temporal phase and spectral content of ultrashort light pulses. We have demonstrated spectral control of a time-delayed ultrafast probe pulse propagating through the rotational wave packet prepared by a pump laser pulse. The spectrum of the probe pulse can be either broadened or compressed, depending on the relative sign of the temporal phase modulation and the initial chirp of the probe pulse. Adjustment of the spectralphase at the output of the interaction region allows controlled temporal pulse streching^1 and compression^2. The degree to which the spectrum of an ultrafast pulse can be modified depends on the strength and shape of the rotational wavepacket. We are studying the optimization of the rotational wave packet excitation with complex, shaped pump laser pulses for the purpose of optimizing probe pulse spectra modulation. ^1 Klaus Hartinger and Randy A. Bartels, Opt. Lett., submitted (2005). ^2 R.A. Bartels, T.C. Weinacht, N. Wagner, M. Baertschy, Chris H. Greene, M.M. Murnane, and H.C. Kapteyn , Phys. Rev. Lett., 88, 013903 (2002). This work was supported by the NSF.

The determination of the role of liquid films in three phase flows in porous media is very important for enhanced oil recovery by gas injection in a petroleum reservoir. The existence of liquid films (water, oil), their thickness and their stability, control the distribution of fluids and the displacement of these fluids in the reservoir. The target of this research is to obtain, from experimental observations, the microscopic rules of flow by films taking into account the elementary mechanisms controlling the displacement of fluids. For this, a method of liquid film flow thickness measurement is developed in a quartz Hele-Shaw cell. It is based on infrared spectrometry, used for the first time to our knowledge for such an application, which gives the possibility to follow the drainage kinetics of oil and water in the presence of gas. When the thick oil film is initially stable on water in the presence of gas, it slowly drains until it reaches a constant thickness of about 20 nm. This film may breaks down into micro droplets of less than few micrometers in diameter. When this thick oil film is not initially stable, it immediately breaks down into droplets of 10 to 20 {mu}m in diameter prevents any oil flow. For spreading conditions, the initial oil thickness of about 200 nm is calculated form the Ca capillary number. The flow kinetics of this film is then determined when macroscopic forces are predominant. Finally, for the estimation of the stabilisation thickness, disjoining pressure isotherms, based on long-scale intermolecular forces (VdW), are calculated for pure n-alkanes. In order to study the macroscopic flow parameters, gravity drainage experiments are carried out in a 2D glass network (micro-model). Measurements of oil production (weight) and residual saturations (image analysis) show clearly the influence of the initial stability of oil, coating water in the presence of gas, on the flow mechanisms. (author) 73 refs.

Two phenomena have been studied: the action of {gamma} rays from radio-cobalt on the adsorption and catalytic properties of ZnO and NiO in. relationship with the heterogeneous oxidation of CO, and the homogeneous catalysis by OsO{sub 4} of the oxidation of various aqueous phase solutes by the same radiation. The prior irradiation of ZnO and of NiO does not modify their catalytic activity but generally increases the adsorption energy of -the gases CO and O{sub 2}. The influence of the radiations appears to be connected with the presence of traces of water on ZnO and of an excess of oxygen on NiO. Osmium tetroxide which is not degraded by irradiation in acid solution, accelerates the radiolytic oxidation of certain compounds (Te{sup IV}, Pt{sup 11}, As{sup 111}) in the presence of oxygen, as a result of its sensitizing effect on the oxidation by H{sub 2}O{sub 2}. In the case of phosphites on the other hand, OsO{sub 4} has a protecting action under certain conditions of acidity and may suppress entirely the chain reaction which characterizes the oxidation of this solute by{gamma} rays. A general mechanism is proposed for these phenomena. The rate constant for the OsO{sub 4} + HO{sub 2} reaction is calculated to be 5.7 x 10{sup 5} l.mol{sup -1}. sec{sup -1}. (author) [French] Deux phenomenes ont ete etudies: l'action des rayons {gamma} du radio-cobalt sur les proprietes adsorptives et catalytiques de ZnO et NiO en relation avec l'oxydation heterogene de CO et la catalyse homogene par OsO{sub 4} de l'oxydation de divers solutes en phase aqueuse par ce meme rayonnement. L'irradiation prealable de ZnO et de NiO n'a pas modifie leur activite catalytique, mais a generalement accru l'energie d'adsorption des gaz CO et O{sub 2}. L'influence des radiations semble liee a la presence de traces d'eau sur ZnO et d'un exces d'oxygene sur NiO. Le tetroxyde d'osmium qui n'est pas altere par le rayonnement en solution